Monday, September 28, 2009

Python(x,y) A Scientific Python Distribution

I recently came across, this interesting, opensource Python Scientific Distribution for Windows. I normally don't pay too much attention to windows tools, but it's good to have something to recommend to windows users when you want them to try out some Python code.

For Linux users, it's not really relevant, because we all have powerfull package managers to help us get most Python packages installed very easily.

The dowside is that it is a really big download, 300+ MB, and the only mirror available was giving me only about 15 Kbps today (I am on a 18MBps connection). It is so big that it includes Enthought Tool Suite in it and much more.

For users of more civilized Operating systems, like Linux, It's worth checking out one of the editors bundled, spyder, which is available through pypi ("easy_install spyder"). It's a reincarnation of pydee, and despite its beta status, it is very good already.

referente a: python(x,y) - Python for Scientists (ver no Google Sidewiki)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

> For Linux users, it's not really relevant, because we all have powerfull package managers to help us get most Python packages installed very easily.
=> The problem here is that science packages sometimes release faster than Linux. Current stable numpy in Ubuntu is version 1.2.2!

>The dowside is that it is a really big download, 300+ MB,
> It is so big that it includes Enthought Tool Suite in it and much more.
=> There is a webinstaller that let's you select only needed items.

>It's worth checking out one of the editors bundled, spyder
=> Yes, Spyder is still very bare-bones. But its concept gives a great vision for a tool to do interactive science & analysis with Python in a very comfortable way.
I hope for a smart plugin system.
http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/issues/detail?id=46
This could really boost the tools as everyone would write a plugin that fits to his type of analysis.

Best regards.

Rob Oakes said...

Thanks for highlighting python(x,y). I hadn't heard of it until a friend mentioned it in an email. When speaking to friends and colleagues of the benefit of open source, I've longed for a way to point them to a single download that can provide most of the tools that they'll need. This is just the sort of thing that I can get behind. Now if someone would package an alternative to Mac OS X. As much as I love it, Mac ports and Fink just don't quite get the job done.

Unknown said...

@Rob: I don't know of anything like it for Mac, but you may want to check if the enthought python distribution does OSX. Also, check out Sage (sagemath.org)!

ccp

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