Suggestions for Python workshop

[Cameron Laird]

In article <ck1lhc$qi9$1 at peabody.colorado.edu>,
Fernando Perez  <fperez528 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Yaroslav wrote:
>
>> Hi, I'm preparing a 2 hour workshop titled "Python for Scientific
>> Computing", the goal of which is to introduce people to using Python
>> for their Scientific Computing needs. If you have good examples that
>> illustrate Python's power for scientific computing, please post them
>> here.
>
>These aren't code snippets but full talks, but we're definitely using python
>for 'real' research:
>
>http://amath.colorado.edu/faculty/fperez/talks/04_03_ams_athens.pdf
>http://amath.colorado.edu/faculty/fperez/talks/04_09_scipy04_mwadap.pdf
>
>Here you'll also find other talks from the recent scipy'04:
>
>http://www.scipy.org/wikis/scipy04/ConferenceSchedule
>
>As far as code examples, I imagine all of scipy's code could be used :)
			.
			.
			.
I have strong feelings on this subject, only a fraction of which 
I'll be able to articulate this week.

First, follow everything Fernando says; he's doing great work.

Second, I see a variety of approaches to Python-for-scientists,
and I hope you're able to end up with a Pythonic one.  There's
low-level how-to-ing:  "this is an implementation of a
Rayleigh-Ritz algorithm for PDE solution; you can use this in 
hydrodynamics to ..."  What *really* gets interesting, though,
are comparing Python to other vehicles--Matlab, C++, Fortran--
and, if you're really good, opening the audience's eyes to the 
potential of a language which facilitates comprehension, collabor-
ation, and experimentation.  Most scientific listeners won't 
understand abstraction as it applies to software.  Python-for-
scientists represents a great opportunity.