Fortran vs Python - Newbie Question

[Alex Martelli]

Nomad.C at gmail.com <Nomad.C at gmail.com> wrote:
   ...
> > So I'ld suggest to start with downloading the Enthought edition of Python,
> > and you can judge for yourself within 10 minutes,
> > if it's fast enough.
> >
> > cheers,
> > Stef Mientki
> 
> Is there a mac version??

<http://download.enthought.com/MacEnthon/ReadMe.html> but it's self
labeled as "0.1 Test Release" i.e. somewhat preliminary; it claims to
support only Panther (10.3) and its 2.3.0 Python (no claims for Tiger,
10.4, and its 2.3.5 Python, nor for other Python Mac istalls yet).

If you're just trying to learn and check things out, it might be better
to get a more recent Python from python.org (2.5 or 2.4.4) and the
various other packages as and when you need them (you can use the
MacEnthon list as a guide:-).  You'll need a C compiler to be sure you
can install any package from sources -- Apple's XCode includes gcc, it's
free, and it's the safest choice (but it's a HUGE download, as it comes
with a lot of stuff -- I don't think Apple offers a simple way to
install "just" gcc and minimal supporting tools).


Alex