AttributeError: module 'matlabeng​ineforpyth​on3_8' has no attribute 'createProcess'

I went through the python setup.py install process for extern/engines/python. I did this inside my conda env.

This produced a folder "matlabengineforpython-2020.2-py3.8.egg" in the site-package directory under anaconda.

this name does not meet the naming convention used in __init__.py,

pythonengine = importlib.import_module("matlabengineforpython"+_PYTHONVERSION)

so I created a link

matlabengineforpython3_8 -> matlabengineforpython-2020.2-py3.8.egg/

when I go into my python shell,

>> import matlab.engine

I get error,

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>

File "/Users/bruceho/anaconda3/envs/cartpole/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 86, in <module>

_session = EngineSession()

File "/Users/bruceho/anaconda3/envs/cartpole/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matlab/engine/enginesession.py", line 8, in __init__

pythonengine.createProcess()

AttributeError: module 'matlabengineforpython3_8' has no attribute 'createProcess'

apparently it finds matlabengineforpython3_8 ok, but can't find the create_Process method. I did a grep -r search and indeed don't see this call defined anywhere.

How to fix this?