another pango font error

Hi All, interactive2.py, with GTK backend, is continually

    > returning: 'Warning **: Couldnt load font "Tahoma Italic
    > 8" falling back to "Sans Italic 8"

Basically you are experiencing a win32 GTK font bug.

If GTKAgg is a possibility for you, I encourage you to use it. You
can do an end-run around GTK's font handling with GTKAgg.

Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to manage every backend
across every platform. gtk, tk, wx, gd, ps, agg cross win32, osx,
linux, solaris equals 24 possible environments; multiply this by
different versions of python/gd/tk/gtk/wx and the problem gets worse.
Thus I encourage you and everyone to switch to TkAgg, GTKAgg or WXAgg
where possible. Not only will you get the highest quality and
probably fastest rendering, you'll get the latest features and the
best support. The other platforms are still supported, but not as
aggressively....

    > I found this line in interactive2.py:
    > self.style_err.set_property( "style", pango.STYLE_ITALIC )

    > and checked GTK/etc/pango/pango.aliases. There is no
    > mention of Tahoma fonts in this file.

    > Any suggestions?

The fact that it is not mentioned in your pango.aliases file is
essentially the problem. When GTK tries to load a font it can't find
it goes to this file to look for an alias. Try mapping it to a known
good font on your system, as described in
http://matplotlib.sf.net/faq.html#WINFONTS.

The fact that you are using interactive2.py means you need an
interactive shell. If you want interactivity from the python shell on
win32, I recommend TkAgg if it is a possibility for you. Noting else
comes close for interactive use from the standard python shell,
particularly if you set

tk.window_focus : True

in your .matplotlibrc. Let me know what you are trying to do, and I
can give more targeted and appropriate advice....

JDH

Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to manage every backend
across every platform. gtk, tk, wx, gd, ps, agg cross win32, osx,
linux, solaris equals 24 possible environments; multiply this by
different versions of python/gd/tk/gtk/wx and the problem gets worse.

I was wondering why matplotlib strives to support so many backends...

Let me know what you are trying to do, and I
can give more targeted and appropriate advice....

I wrote a gui app in matlab that takes the fourier transform of a semi-infinite crystal. The point is to simulate X-ray diffraction (I work at the Cornell Synchrotron). The program is pretty good, from a science standpoint. I am considering publishing the work, but I wanted to make it open source. What's the point of doing work funded by the NSF if the public can't access it? So I am investigating rewriting the code using pygtk. I wanted something free and cross platform, and I need the vectorized matrix operations.

Aside from that specific project, I am just trying to get the interactive feel of matlab. I need to take some time to look carefully through all the documentation here, it seems all of my questions have had answers published on the web.

Darren