Closes gh-1649
@ -844,7 +844,7 @@ class NotebookApp(JupyterApp):
@observe('pylab')
def _update_pylab(self, change):
"""when --pylab is specified, display a warning and exit"""
if new != 'warn':
if change['new'] != 'warn':
backend = ' %s' % change['new']
else:
backend = ''