Python 2.5 and 2.6 and Numpy compatibility problem

Question

In the computers of our laboratory, which have Python 2.6.2 installed in them, my program, which is an animation of the 2D random walk and diffusion, works perfectly.

However, I can't get the exact same program to work on my laptop, which has Python 2.5. By that not working, I mean the animation is screwed; the axis always changes every time the pylab.draw() and pylab.clf() commands are called in a for loop.

I call a pylab.axis([specified axis]) command before and after draw() and clf() to fix the "field-of-view", but it's still the same - what I get is a flickering series of image instead of the smooth animation I get when I run the exact same program in our laboratory.

I tried to install Python 2.6 in my laptop, but I discovered that there is no Numpy for Py2.6. So it is a mystery to me that my program, which imports Numpy and uses many of its functions, works in our laboratory computer. What can be done with my compatibility problem?

Answer 1

Numpy for python 2.6 appears to be downloadable from numpy sourceforge or can be compiled from source

Answer 2

The various (matplotlib.pyplot) graphical backends do not behave in exactly the same way.

You could try setting the backend so that it is the same on both machines:

matplotlib.use('GTKagg')  # Right after importing matplotlib

For a list of possible backends, you can do matplotlib.use('...').