From when does matplotlib require Visual C++? (Python 3.8.0)

[Wrichik Basu]

I had Python 3.7.3 installed on my laptop. I decided to upgrade to 3.8.0, and after installing all necessary packages, uninstall the old version.

The installation of 3.8.0 was successfully done. With pip, I installed scipy, numpy and sympy. Now when I tried to install matplotlib, it threw an error. It was a large message, so I have attached that as a text file.

This line in the error message caught my eye:

Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 is required. Get it with "Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools": https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/

I don't have Visual C++ installed, simply because I don't use it and won't require it anytime in the near future. The installation is about 1GB, and I am reluctant to install another piece of software just for Python. I already have Matlab student version (which I bought recently), and use that for all my computation work. I have Python only because it is there in my syllabus. And I have somewhat decided to stick to the old version.

The fact is, I have matplotlib installed for the old version of python. It works fine. And I didn't have Visual C++ at that time. Why is Visual C++ required now all of a sudden? Is this a bug or a deliberate feature?

 

[PeterDonis]

Why is Visual C++ required now all of a sudden?

I believe it's because Python on Windows needs the build tools supplied with Visual C++ to build certain packages. AFAIK that has been true for many Python releases. It's possible that matplotlib changed how they do Python deployments so that now the build tools are required on Windows where they weren't before; or it's possible that the recent changes in how Python distributions are packaged have impacted matplotlib so that they can't, or haven't yet, build a Windows binary distribution for the version you're installing.

 

[jedishrfu]

Perhaps you should look at the Anaconda distributions. It may not have the MS dependency though I can't be sure.

If you're working with Python and these types of distros you will take a heap of space on your disk.

UPDATE: Apparently, Anaconda now ships with MS Visual Studio code and tools.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/python/visual-studio-code-is-now-shipping-with-anaconda/