EASY Install matplotlib on mac ox 10.8

source:  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10183144/installing-build-matplotlib-in-mac-osx-lion

1. Get Xcode 4.3.2, it's required for some of the later steps.
2. Download the latest version of python for OSX from python.org
3. Grab the Scipy superpack.
4. Uninstall any previous versions of numpy/matplotlib/scipy that you currently have. That includes doing cd /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ and moving any numpy/matplotlib/scipy directories or eggs into a temp directory.
5. cd ~/Downloads(or wherever you downloaded the superpack script to) and run sh install_superpack.sh. Answer no to the question are you installing from a repository cloned to this machine or you'll be confused about why the script keeps failing.

That should be it! You should now be able to boot up the python console and import numpy, scipy, matplotlib.

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 17 at 0:04 Nolen Royalty 3,632512

source:  http://fonnesbeck.github.com/ScipySuperpack/

Alternately, if you have curl installed, you can get the script via:

$ curl -o install_superpack.sh 
https://raw.github.com/fonnesbeck/ScipySuperpack/master/install_superpack.sh

To install, open a terminal in the directory that the script is located and call:

$ sh install_superpack.sh

You will be prompted for your administrator password. If you have already installed the current gFortran, you can bypass that package during the install process. Similarly, the installation requires Git, so you will be prompted to install it if you are installing remotely.