I would have posted the question to matplotlib-devel had I
> realized that my answer was going to be presented as a
> credible opinion on a Debian mailing list. Instead, I just
> called it as I see it: Debian's release cycle is too slow to
> accommodate the current pace of matplotlib's development.
> Please let me know if you are aware of any efforts to get
> matplotlib into the Debian distribution or if you feel I have
> misrepresented the situation, and I will happily get the word
> out.
There have been long-standing efforts to get mpl into ddebian -- I
don't think the version number matters much (ipython is in with
0.something) . Go to google groups and search for matplotlib debian
and sort by date. You'll see fairly recent and ongoing discussions on
getting Vittorio's packages fiished. There were minor nits (eg the
src for the docs should be packaged) but I think it's at the stage of
just getting someone to finally push the go button.
JDH