Re: [Matplotlib-users] Why is pip not mentioned in the Installation Documentation?

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

In article <50A...@ed...>,
 Mathew Topper <mat...@ed...> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm interested to know why the pip package manager is not more widely 
> supported for installation of python packages like matplotlib? 
> Matplotlib seems to be particularly slowly updated in the Fedora 
> repositories, for example, so I often find that a source installation is 
> necessary. I know this isn't especially difficult for the experienced 
> user, but surely using something like pip would make this process for 
> accessible for all users of python packages, particularly those that do 
> not receive much attention from the big distribution maintainers? Yet, 
> pip doesn't get a mention on the installation documentation of 
> matplotlib or many other python packs.
> 
> I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this matter.

Unfortunately pip cannot install binaries, so any user that tried to 
install matplotlib using pip would have to have a C compiler.

Unfortunately many users do not have a compiler on MacOS and Windows.

In addition, matplotlib has some important dependencies that may not be 
available on all systems. MacOS now includes all necessary libraries. I 
don't think that is true for most flavors linux (though there is 
probably an easy way to get all missing packages). I have no idea about 
Windows.

I agree pip should be mentioned, but I don't see it as a viable 
mainstream means of installing matplotlib.

(Does it even work with matplotlib? I've never tried it.)

-- Russell