[SciPy-User] SciPy ecosystem

[Thomas Kluyver]

Hi Bob,

On 6 September 2012 21:57, The Helmbolds <helmrp at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Can anyone give me a _precise_ definition of what the "SciPy ecosystem" is, and is not?
>
> For example, let's say I have or have seen some code somewhere.
> How do I tell quickly whether it is or is not included in this "SciPy ecosystem"?
> What characteristics of the code do I use to determine whether it is or is not part of this "ecosytem"?

Well, an 'ecosystem' is a rather loose concept - it defines a web of
interconnected things, not a strict in/out categorisation.

At the core of the scipy ecosystem are numpy, scipy and matplotlib -
there are strong connections between the projects, both in the code
and in the people working on them. Then there's a ring of other
closely related packages like IPython, pandas, and the various
scikits. And of course, there's a wealth of more specialist code that
relies on one or more of these packages. Distributions like EPD and
Python(x,y) that focus on python in science are also part of the
ecosystem, in a different way.

In terms of the name we're looking for, there still needn't be a rigid
definition of what it refers to, although there will be a defined core
that distributions should consistently offer. The idea is that any
project or analysis relying on some of the packages mentioned above
can say that it uses Pylab (if that is indeed the name we pick). Then
anyone else who wants to run that has a good starting point to install
the dependencies.

Best wishes,
Thomas