[SciPy-user] What can be improved ?

[Steven H. Rogers]

Stef Mientki wrote:
> And here are some aspects, for which I still have doubts or questions:
> - from .... import *
> the use of this construct is discouraged, and gives a warning (the only 
> warning I get is from David ;-)
> Coming from Delphi, it's very common to include everything you've available,
> so you never have to worry missing something,
> and if included in the right order,
> you are guaranteed to have the best version of everything (due to 
> overrides),
> while you're still able to use older/previous libraries, by explictly 
> naming them.
> The compiler will sort out everything you don't need.
> So what's so different in Python, that I can't include everything that's 
> on my PC ?
>   
You can, it just isn't efficient.  It pollutes your top level name space 
and increases the probability of naming collisions.  It increases the 
memory footprint unnecessarily.
> - use CSV, yes but how should I've known ?
> I think (and it's mentioned before by others) this is one of the major 
> problems of Python,
> "where should I find something ?". I've read the book "Learning Python", 
> but nothing is mentioned about CSV :-(
>   
While an excellent introductory text, this isn't a very good reference 
IMHO.  Take a look at David Beazley's
`Python Essential Reference <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0672328623>`_ 
which has brief but clear explanations and examples and is well 
organized for reference.

I'm looking at adding a documentation search capability for IPython to 
augment it's interactive help.  So far I have little but good intentions 
and  a wiki page 
<http://ipython.scipy.org/moin/Developer_Zone/SearchDocs>.  Ideas about 
what would be most useful to users, search strategies, and how best to 
present the results are welcome.

# Steve