Dear all,
I have just succeeded in compiling and installing matplotlib on Debian
Sarge. I look forward to many hours of happy graphing, etc.
However, I think that there are a few things which could be done to make
the whole procedure less painful for users.
I compiled with the Tk backend. But when I tried to import pylab, it
kept looking for the GTK backend. After several recompilations, I
realised that matplotlibrc still thought the default backend was GTKAgg.
I changed this to TKAgg and all was fine.
Problems/Solutions:
(1) If I don't compile GTK, please don't make it the default. Or, at
least, in the installation procedure please tell me to change the
default backend in matplotlibrc (or even, just tell me about
matplotlibrc).
(2) If I need to edit setup.py, please include the list of possible
options beside each of the relevant lines.
(3) If I need to edit matplotlibrc, please include the list of possible
options beside each of the relevant lines. I had to look up the correct
spelling for TkAgg in the source (the User Guide variously refers to
tkagg, Tkagg, TkAgg) - there is an easier way.
I appreciate all of the hard work by the matplotlib team and hope that
my comments are helpful,
Regards,
Noel O'Boyle.