cant install from source on MSWindows

[Darren Dale]

I'm getting the old "need visual studio 6" error message. I have seen 
advice to download the free compiler, I tried that and it didnt work. I 
have an academic copy of VS.net, tried installing that, and still no 
dice. Can somebody tell me how they have been able to get this working? 
I would like to start contributing to my favorite plotting package, but 
this is really tripping me up.

Thanks,
Darren