Obtain source code from  http://sourceforge.net/projects/matplotlib/

For ASAP 3.0 you should use version >= 0.99

You also need "numpy" version >= 1.3. 
This is available from http://www.numpy.org
To install numpy
{{{ 
  cd /some/dir
  tar zxvf ~/numpy-x.y.z.tar.gz
  cd numpy-x.y.z 
  python setup.py build
  sudo python setup.py install
}}}

To install matplotlib

{{{
  
  cd /some/dir
  tar zxvf ~/matplotlib-x.y.z.tar.gz
  cd matplotlib-z.y.z

}}}

ASAP currently only uses the tk backend. It is recommends that you only compile in support for tk (unless you know what you are doing and want the other backends). Edit setup.py and set the following variables

{{{
  BUILD_AGG          = 1
  BUILD_GTKAGG       = 0
  BUILD_GTK          = 0

  BUILD_WXAGG        = 0
}}}

Then all you have to do is

{{{
  python setup.py build
  sudo python setup.py install
}}}

Note that if you do not have sudo configured you instead would 

{{{
  su 
  python setup.py install
}}}

Please refer to the o/s [wiki:ASAPInstall notes] for suggested packages which need to be installed to compile matplotlib