Python as a numerical prototyping language.

[Carl]

I have been using Python for quite some time now and I love it. I use it
mainly for explorative computing and numerical prototyping, ie testing and
trying out different kinds of algorithms and computational schemes. The use
of Python as my first-choice language has made me extremely productive. 

Now, I have always believed that Python is a poor performer in terms of
numerical speed. My experience, however, is that the efficient use of
dictionaries, lists, precompiled numerical libraries, etc makes Python a
higly competitive language for scientific computing (in comparison with
more traditional languages such as C, C++ and different versions of
Fortran).

Where is Python heading? Will it be a viable replacement for traditional
number-crunching languages in the near-term future?

Carl