Python and Math

[Tim Golden]

On 19/05/2014 11:15, Fabien wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I am new on this forum (I come from IDL and am starting to learn python)
> 
> This thread perfectly illustrates why Python is so scary to newcomers:
> one question, three answers: yes, no, maybe.

Welcome to the Python world, Fabien.

But I'm sure you realise that question as general-purpose as "is Python
good for Maths?" is pretty much *bound* to generate different kinds of
answers. I'm not sure why it should be seen as scary. If anything, the
variety of responses reflects the diversity of Python's userbase.

The casual mathematician sees Python as perfectly adequate using
built-in tools alone. The more advanced mathematician sees it as helpful
with the addition of some specialist libraries. The most advanced user
would prefer some specialised language or toolset more entirely devoted
to this one area of interest.

And you could repeat the same situation with any number of other areas:
Image Processing, Websites, Network-based message passing, Data mining,
financial market management, web-scraping, etc. For some, Python has
more or less useful built-in support. For some, there are
well-established or highly-regarded 3rd-party libraries and communities.
For some, you might be better advised to look at a different toolset,
especially if you want something which comes ready-made.

As I say, though, welcome to Python!

TJG