title: python and update figure in matplotlib
body: <p>I've done a search on SO but haven't quite found the right "solution" to my problem.  I am running a loop on some data that I wish to plot.  At each step of the loop -- I plot the figure with plt.show().  However, since this is a blocking function, i am stuck until I manually close the window and then the loop continues and the next plot shows up.  </p>
  
  <p>What I would like to do is be able to bind a key press event to close the figure and continue the loop (rather than using the mouse to "X" out of the figure).  </p>
  
  <p>If this is not possible, I would like to set a timer to close the figure and continue the loop.  </p>
  
  <p>All my issues seem to deal with the fact that plt.show() is blocking everything else -- any way around this?  </p>
  
  <p>Some notes on my plots:  They use the same axes, but contain a scatter plot, fill boxes, and annotations -- which are always changing.  </p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>