New versions of numpy and matplotlib?

moctir

I use numpy and matplotlib a lot for work, but as the newer versions don't support Python 2, they haven't been updated for a while, what is the best way to use the current version? Uninstall the eopkg package and install via pip or will an update be coming?

aliakbar

moctir May I suggest the Anaconda package manager as a great alternative to pip?
You can also create different python environments easily each with its own Python version and libraries. But above all the one feature that earned my respect is that Conda automatically checks for version dependencies and conflicts, if a package X depends on an older version of library Y, and you have a newer version of Y, Conda will uninstall the newer version and install the older one (after confirming with you obviously). You can tinker with unlimited environments without touching the Python on your root partition and wreaking havoc on your setup.

You can grab the free version here.

davidjharder

@moctir I don't work with python, but I do know that using pip install is a good way to mess up system python.
What you probably need is some variety of python virtual environment:
https://towardsdatascience.com/python-environment-101-1d68bda3094d

moctir

Well using sudo pip install certainly isn't great, but you could install it as a user, it's just currently I'm using the system python and going to a virtual environment or anaconda would change my work flow a bit. But I am wondering what others are doing if they need the newer versions.

palto42

moctir As commented by @davidjharder , the best solution is to use Python virtual environments. I'm using a lot Python on differenet systems and even had issues with pip install in user environment because it could create version conflicts between different programs. Even with pip in user space you can get conflicts with system installed Python programs because the user libraries are preferred (lib search path).
Virtual environments are safe and quite easy to use (after short learning curve).

kyrios

At first sight there are no more python 2 packages depending on matplotlib, so I guess we could consider switching from the 2.2 LTS branch to the 3.x branch. You may want to request a package update,

Regarding numpy, it won't be upgraded until all the python 2 packages depending on it have been deprecated or that a package from the repository absolutely requires a newer version to work.

kyrios

Looks like @algent has submitted a patch for updating matplotlib 🙂

moctir

I saw that, I did mean to do that at some stage in the last 3 months but haven't been coding as much and didn't get around to it. Although realistically I'll have to start using virtual environments.

algent

moctir matplotlib is updated to latest version. About numpy it is a problem to update it now because it is the last version that is supporting python2.