Since I wanted to start contributing to matplotlib, I tried to build matplotlib from source. I read through the documentation and tried to use matplotlib-winbuild as recommended on the website.

The first problem was that matplotlib-winbuild seems to be outdated and does not support VS2015 / VS2017. There's a pull-request that claims to add support for VS2015, but that didn't work out for me.

I then tried several different ways to install the external dependencies, but none worked out until I found build_alllocal.cmd in the matplotlib repository.

Using build_alllocal.cmd (with two small changes), I was able to get a working build of matplotlib. It uses anaconda to get the external dependencies and eliminates the trouble of compiling them. I made a short gist showing how I managed to build matplotlib: gist.

Now my questions are:

Is the way I installed matplotlib correct? Can I use this setup for testing/developing matplotlib? Are there any restrictions or things the won't work?

If it is a valid deveopment build, shouldn't the installation process above be part of the official documentation? It seems to be easier than the process that's currently suggested in the docs and might lower the barrier for new contributors who are working on Windows.

I'm looking forward to your replies.