Option to skip `plt.show()` so that plots can later be modified

[salu133445]

Hi, thanks for the really nice package. I would like to suggest to add an option to skip plt.show() in draw_plots() so that the plots can later be modified. That is something like

• show=True: (default) run plt.show() as usual
• show=False: skip plt.show()

By skipping plt.show(), users can then, for example, change the styles, modify the labels or add annotations, and call plt.show() afterward. For instance,

liveloss.draw(show=False)
plt.xlabel('step')
plt.show()

Thanks!

[stared]

@salu133445 I have a long-planned rewrite of the plotting so that it would be easier to customize plots.

In the meantime, if you create a consistent way to pass show, I would be happy to accept your PR.

[stared]

With 0.5.2 it is possible to set custom sequences (thanks to @Bartolo1024):

    def _default_after_subplot(self, ax: plt.Axes, group_name: str, x_label: str):
        """Add title xlabel and legend to single chart
        Args:
            ax: matplotlib Axes
            group_name: name of metrics group (eg. Accuracy, Recall)
            x_label: label of x axis (eg. epoch, iteration, batch)
        """
        ax.set_title(group_name)
        ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
        ax.legend(loc='center right')

    def _default_before_plots(self, fig: plt.Figure, num_of_log_groups: int) -> None:
        """Set matplotlib window properties
        Args:
            fig: matplotlib Figure
            num_of_log_groups: number of log groups
        """
        clear_output(wait=True)
        figsize_x = self.max_cols * self.cell_size[0]
        figsize_y = ((num_of_log_groups + 1) // self.max_cols + 1) * self.cell_size[1]
        fig.set_size_inches(figsize_x, figsize_y)

    def _default_after_plots(self, fig: plt.Figure):
        """Set properties after charts creation
        Args:
            fig: matplotlib Figure
        """
        fig.tight_layout()

It can be altered with PlotLosses(outputs=[MatplotlibPlot(before_plots=..., after_plots=...)])

See https://github.com/stared/livelossplot/blob/master/examples/various_options.ipynb for inspiration (with examples of how to change labels or other, with after_subplot keyword argument.

Note: right now plt.show() is not (yet?) in after_plots. If you have a use case to separate it, we would be happy to do so.