Actually, I think I found it. It looks like each backend defines a new_figure_manager() function. Then, in backends/__init__.py, not only do the aliased FigureManager and FigureCanvas objects get imported from the appropriate module, but so does that function. It is pylab_setup() in the backends/__init__.py that creates the canvas object, it seems? I guess this is one of those remaining issues that is keeping us from fully separating pyplot from the rest of matplotlib? Cheers! Ben Root On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote: > I thought I had this understood, but now I am confused while working on my > last chapter. I know that the Figure object never directly creates its own > canvas object. It starts off with a None object as a placeholder and waits > for one to be given to it. However, I can only find one place where the > figure object's set_canvas() method is called, and that is in the canvas's > print_figure() method to restore itself as the figure's canvas after > temporaraily switching to another backend for saving. > > I thought that the FigureManager initializes the primary canvas object, > but that doesn't seem to be the case. Where is it done? > > Cheers! > Ben Root >