ENH: raise a more informative error when no animation writers are available

jakevdp · jakevdp · commit 6b17b17dd38f · 2012-11-25T07:42:06.000-08:00
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
@@ -595,6 +595,11 @@ def save(self, filename, writer=None, fps=None, dpi=None, codec=None,
         the individual frames. This can be used to set tight bounding boxes,
         for example.
         '''
+        if len(writers.list()) == 0:
+            raise ValueError("Cannot save animation: no writers are "
+                             "available. Please install mencoder or "
+                             "ffmpeg to save animations.")
+
         if savefig_kwargs is None:
             savefig_kwargs = {}
 
