Python & Matplotlib on OSX

One day, we will hopefully have a grand unified build and package management system for Python where everything is free & open and Just Works (TM). Until then, you have two options:

brew Python + pip

1. brew install python3
2. pyvenv -v ~/envs/py3
3. source ~/envs/py3/bin/activate
4. pip install matplotlib

Pros/cons:

• Pip is the standard Python package management tool, and uses the official Python Package Index (PyPi) repository.
• Wheels on PyPi are built by authors themselves from open recipes.
• Binary wheels may not be available for all packages.
• Pip is not the best of package management tools.

Conda

1. Download and install miniconda
2. conda create -n py3 python=3.5 matplotlib
3. source activate py3

Pros/cons:

• Conda is a great package management tool.
• Conda environments are well tested; almost everything works out of the box. This includes fast linear algebra using MKL.
• Some of the conda build recipes are closed and binary wheels may not be available for all packages¹.
• Conda and pip do not always play well together.
• Conda packages are supported almost exclusively by a single company.