Documentation Link

https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/devel/dependencies.html#compiled-extensions

Problem

The documentation states to install the Visual Studio Build Tools and through these the latest MSVC, "C++ CMake tools for Windows," and a Windows SDK.
Even though I did that (and rebooted), the editable install did not work. The installation process and compilation itself seemed to be working fine. At least, I couldn't spot any obvious errors in the output. But Matplotlib failed to import due to some DLLs not being found.

What fixed it for me, was running the following command:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" x86_amd64

Obviously, path and architecture may be different for other users. But it seems this step is necessary to correctly set up the environment. I'm not very familiar with this MSVC stuff though, so maybe this was some peculiarity on my system? Someone who knows more about this should decide whether this is right or not.

Suggested improvement

Add a note to run this command before the editable install.