plot_sensors(kind='select') does not fill the list with selected channel names

For some reason interactive channel selection in plot_sensors(kind='select') does not update the returned list of selected channels.

Reproducible example

Confirmed this on latest master:

import mne
import os
from mne.datasets import multimodal

fname_raw = os.path.join(multimodal.data_path(), 'multimodal_raw.fif')
raw = mne.io.read_raw_fif(fname_raw)

now in interactive mode perform:

fig, sel = raw.plot_sensors(kind='select')

select a few channels and see what happens to sel list - its empty.

[drammock]

Ok, so currently the old behavior, where the list would update without blocking is not possible?

Well, you can still access it via fig.lasso.selection. But actually, after digging around in the code, I think I know what changed. Previously I think the original list object created during init of the lasso selector was preserved throughout. That is no longer happening; in the on_select and select_many methods it’s now getting rewritten instead of just appended, popped, etc. I’ll see if I can fix it.

[mmagnuski]

Ok, so currently the old behavior, where the list would update without blocking is not possible? Then I’d consider throwing a warning when kind='select' and block=False.