Add what's new note

Author: timhoffm

doc/users/next_whats_new/pyplot-register-figure.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+Figures can be attached to and removed from pyplot
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Figures can now be attached to and removed from management through pyplot, which in
+the background also means a less strict coupling to backends.
+
+In particular, standalone figures (created with the `.Figure` constructor) can now be
+registered with the `.pyplot` module by calling ``plt.figure(fig)``. This allows to
+show them with ``plt.show()`` as you would do with any figure created with pyplot
+factory methods such as ``plt.figure()`` or ``plt.subplots()``.
+
+When closing a shown figure window, the related figure is reset to the standalone
+state, i.e. it's not visible to pyplot anymore, but if you still hold a reference
+to it, you can continue to work with it (e.g. do ``fig.savefig()``, or re-add it
+to pyplot with ``plt.figure(fig)`` and then show it again).
+
+The following is now possible - though the example is exaggerated to show what's
+possible. In practice, you'll stick with much simpler versions for better
+consistency ::
+
+    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+    from matplotlib.figure import Figure
+
+    # Create a standalone figure
+    fig = Figure()
+    ax = fig.add_subplot()
+    ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6])
+
+    # Register it with pyplot
+    plt.figure(fig)
+
+    # Modify the figure through pyplot
+    plt.xlabel("x label")
+
+    # Show the figure
+    plt.show()
+
+    # Close the figure window through the GUI
+
+    # Continue to work on the figure
+    fig.savefig("my_figure.png")
+    ax.set_ylabel("y label")
+
+    # Re-register the figure and show it again
+    plt.figure(fig)
+    plt.show()
+
+Technical detail: Standalone figures use `.FigureCanvasBase` as canvas. This is
+replaced by a backend-dependent subclass when registering with pyplot, and is
+reset to `.FigureCanvasBase` when the figure is closed. `.Figure.savefig` uses
+the current canvas to save the figure (if possible). Since `.FigureCanvasBase`
+is Agg-based any Agg-based backend will create the same file output. There may
+be slight differences for non-Agg backends; e.g. if you use "GTK4Cairo" as
+interactive backend, ``fig.savefig("file.png")`` may create a slightly different
+image depending on whether the figure is registered with pyplot or not.