Summary

We currently have:

• matplotlib.use
• matplotlib.get_backend
• pyplot.switch_backend

Issues:

• The namematplotlib.use is really obscure.
• The difference betweenswitch_backend anduse is not quite clear.

Proposed fix

• Consider renamingmatplotlib.use (and either discourace or long-term deprecateuse (with a pending deprecation)).
• Check whetheruse andswitch_backend can be unified. If not, at least improve the documentation.

Side note: Theforce parameter inuse can be dropped.

matplotlib.use(..., force=True)

is equivalent to

try:    matplotlib.use(...)except ImportError:    pass

It should be rare that users want to ignore that changing the backend fails. And if so, they can do it explicitly. We do not need to provide API for that. The only slight complication is that this the default behavior is force=True; i.e. dropping would change the default behavor. But we can address that in the course of "renaming": We simply provide a new function, e.g.set_backend with the new behavior.