When I try the magic command %pylab I get the following error:
In [1]: %pylab
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UnicodeDecodeError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-1-5c1faa999e5b> in <module>()
----> 1 get_ipython().magic(u'pylab')
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.pyc in magic(self, arg_s)
2203 magic_name, _, magic_arg_s = arg_s.partition(' ')
2204 magic_name = magic_name.lstrip(prefilter.ESC_MAGIC)
-> 2205 return self.run_line_magic(magic_name, magic_arg_s)
2206
2207 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.pyc in run_line_magic(self, magic_name, line)
2124 kwargs['local_ns'] = sys._getframe(stack_depth).f_locals
2125 with self.builtin_trap:
-> 2126 result = fn(*args,**kwargs)
2127 return result
2128
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/magics/pylab.pyc in pylab(self, line)
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/magic.pyc in <lambda>(f, *a, **k)
191 # but it's overkill for just that one bit of state.
192 def magic_deco(arg):
--> 193 call = lambda f, *a, **k: f(*a, **k)
194
195 if callable(arg):
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/magics/pylab.pyc in pylab(self, line)
134 import_all = not args.no_import_all
135
--> 136 gui, backend, clobbered = self.shell.enable_pylab(args.gui, import_all=import_all)
137 self._show_matplotlib_backend(args.gui, backend)
138 print ("Populating the interactive namespace from numpy and matplotlib")
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.pyc in enable_pylab(self, gui, import_all, welcome_message)
2980 from IPython.core.pylabtools import import_pylab
2981
-> 2982 gui, backend = self.enable_matplotlib(gui)
2983
2984 # We want to prevent the loading of pylab to pollute the user's
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.pyc in enable_matplotlib(self, gui)
2941 gui, backend = pt.find_gui_and_backend(self.pylab_gui_select)
2942
-> 2943 pt.activate_matplotlib(backend)
2944 pt.configure_inline_support(self, backend)
2945
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/pylabtools.pyc in activate_matplotlib(backend)
287 matplotlib.rcParams['backend'] = backend
288
--> 289 import matplotlib.pyplot
290 matplotlib.pyplot.switch_backend(backend)
291
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.p in <module>()
25
26 import matplotlib
---> 27 import matplotlib.colorbar
28 from matplotlib import style
29 from matplotlib import _pylab_helpers, interactive
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/colorbar.py in <module>()
32 import matplotlib.artist as martist
33 import matplotlib.cbook as cbook
---> 34 import matplotlib.collections as collections
35 import matplotlib.colors as colors
36 import matplotlib.contour as contour
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/collections.py in <module>()
25 import matplotlib.artist as artist
26 from matplotlib.artist import allow_rasterization
---> 27 import matplotlib.backend_bases as backend_bases
28 import matplotlib.path as mpath
29 from matplotlib import _path
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backend_bases.py in <module>()
54
55 import matplotlib.tight_bbox as tight_bbox
---> 56 import matplotlib.textpath as textpath
57 from matplotlib.path import Path
58 from matplotlib.cbook import mplDeprecation
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/textpath.py in <module>()
17 from matplotlib.path import Path
18 from matplotlib import rcParams
---> 19 import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager
20 from matplotlib.ft2font import FT2Font, KERNING_DEFAULT, LOAD_NO_HINTING
21 from matplotlib.ft2font import LOAD_TARGET_LIGHT
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py in <module>()
1410 verbose.report("Using fontManager instance from %s" % _fmcache)
1411 except:
-> 1412 _rebuild()
1413 else:
1414 _rebuild()
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py in _rebuild()
1395 def _rebuild():
1396 global fontManager
-> 1397 fontManager = FontManager()
1398 if _fmcache:
1399 pickle_dump(fontManager, _fmcache)
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py in __init__(self, size, weight)
1035 # Load TrueType fonts and create font dictionary.
1036
-> 1037 self.ttffiles = findSystemFonts(paths) + findSystemFonts()
1038 self.defaultFamily = {
1039 'ttf': 'Bitstream Vera Sans',
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py in findSystemFonts(fontpaths, fontext)
320 fontfiles[f] = 1
321
--> 322 for f in get_fontconfig_fonts(fontext):
323 fontfiles[f] = 1
324
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py in get_fontconfig_fonts(fontext)
272 pipe = subprocess.Popen(['fc-list', '--format=%{file}\\n'],
273 stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
--> 274 stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
275 output = pipe.communicate()[0]
276 except (OSError, IOError):
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/subprocess.pyc in __init__(self, args, bufsize, executable, stdin, stdout, stderr, preexec_fn, close_fds, shell, cwd, env, universal_newlines, startupinfo, creationflags)
708 p2cread, p2cwrite,
709 c2pread, c2pwrite,
--> 710 errread, errwrite)
711 except Exception:
712 # Preserve original exception in case os.close raises.
/Users/rafaelrodrigues/anaconda/lib/python2.7/subprocess.pyc in _execute_child(self, args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds, cwd, env, universal_newlines, startupinfo, creationflags, shell, to_close, p2cread, p2cwrite, c2pread, c2pwrite, errread, errwrite)
1325 raise
1326 child_exception = pickle.loads(data)
-> 1327 raise child_exception
1328
1329
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)
I have uninstalled and installed matplotlib again many times. I am using the latest versions of IPython and Matplotlib in my Mac OS Mavericks.
What else should I try?
Tks
TypeError: cannot return std::string from Unicode object, again something to do with theFontManager. Any luck in figuring out what's wrong so far?conda install matplotlibsolved my problem. For some reasonconda update anacondadoes not fetch the latest versions of matplotlib and associated packages.