[Tutor] Installing problem in matplotlib

[Chris Fuller]

Is there a reason you are building from scratch?  There are binaries for 
win32, and most linux distributions.

You will need the development packages for libpng, zlib, and freetype, and 
others, depending on the GUI backends you want to use.  These can be 
configured in the setup.cfg file.  See 
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/installing.html.

If you are doing something like creating images for a web server, you may not 
need any GUI backends at all.  This is not an unusual use-case!

If you don't know which backend you'd like to use, select Tk, GTK, and wx.  
This will cover the examples and give you a feel for the different toolkits.  
Tk is a nice one for beginners, although the others are generally faster, 
better looking, and more capable, although the just-released new version of 
Tk addresses most of these.  Que flamewar.

I use GTK myself, but I still have a fondness for the simplicity and elegance 
of Tk, and still use it for quick and simple tasks.

Cheers