Re: [Matplotlib-users] Help Installing on Mac OS X

[Russell E. O. <ro...@uw...>]

In article <A94...@tu...>,
 Shir Livne <shi...@tu...> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I downloaded the files from the site, but when i type "import  
> matplotlib" in python, it responds with "ImportError: No module named  
> matplotlib"
> 
> Does anyone mind going through the download steps for me? I probably  
> forgot something simple.

What file did you download?

If it was a binary installer, then which python are you using (open a 
Terminal and type "which python"). You should see a path starting with 
/Library, NOT with /System/Library.

If the path starts with /System/Library then that explains your problem: 
you are using the built-in python instead of the python from python.org 
(though the binary *may* work with other 3rd party pythons as well, e.g. 
Enthought or ActiveState).

So, the steps are:
- Download and install a suitable python from <http://python.org> (I 
recommend 2.6.x, but 2.5.x is also fine; we don't have a matplotlib 
binary for 2.7 yet because it is so new)
- Download and install the matching matplotlib Mac binary (for Python 
2.5 or 2.6).

Regards,

-- Russell