OK... but the zip has lots of directories in it. Do I need
> to upgrade any of them other than examples?
No, they include dirs you need if you are compiling the distribution
yourself, and include some additional stuff related to testing. It's
really only the examples. I could include them in distutils in the
same way I add font files, etc, and place them
share/matplotlib/examples.
>> As far as mysterious not working bits goes, I'd say that the
>> safest thing to do is to uninstall your previous version before
>> upgrading. I myself don't do this unless I notice something
>> broken or get otherwise suspicious, but that's my bad practice.
> I could do that with no problem, but it strikes me as odd
> somehow.
It is odd, but it sometimes seems to help. distutils doesn't
unconditionally overwrite on a new install. Did it help in your case?
JDH