[Tutor] a quick Q: how to use for loop to read a series of files with .doc end

[Walter Prins]

Hi Lina,

On 8 October 2011 18:18, lina <lina.lastname at gmail.com> wrote:

>  I write mainly critical speed code and large memory code that are meant to
> run as hug jobs over cluster (transportability is an issue;
> my C code is really faster than my Maple code; interpreter language are
> good for development of algorithm in view to write a fast C code;
> speed does not involved human time but machine time; I do not really care
> about candy interfaces; for human interface Python and alike are recommended
> but BASH (and even DASH) can do very good job; I am not sure that a
> scientist is more concerned with interface than with efficient code except
> for
> visual stuff; being very familiar with of a given language is certainly
> better than  knowing superficially a lot of languages;
> as a lot of interpreter languages, Python has a huge manual; C manual is
> rather small; D is both a interpreter language and a compiler language:
> it is why I want to learn D: no more need to write wrapper that can be
> boring and that can be bottle neck.
>

I should think that the Core Python *language* manual is almost certainly
smaller than the C one.  (The base Python language is actually rather small
and concise. What typically makes Python books larger in general is I think
actually the (so called "batteries included") extensive set of libraries and
modules included and commonly available for the language, not the Python
language itself.)

As for the compiler/interpreter argument, I'll just point out again that
actually Python in its various forms can either be compiled and/or
interepreted, it depends on you really.  For compiled Python flavours, see
for example Cython (http://cython.org/) which provides a way to write C/C++
modules for Python effectively in Python syntax.  (Cython arguably also
makes the "need to write wrapper" comment a moot point.)   Or see Shedskin (
http://shed-skin.blogspot.com/), a Python to C++ static compiler), or Psyco
(http://psyco.sourceforge.net/introduction.html ), a JIT (Just In Time)
compiler for CPython.  Or see Pypy (http://pypy.org/) which is another
reimplementation of the Python language with an optimizing JIT compiler.
(The following post re realtime image processing in Python is rather
impressive:
http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2011/07/realtime-image-processing-in-python.html)


I'd like to also mention that there's many many Python packages of interest
or used by the scientific community, not least NumPy/SciPy (
http://numpy.scipy.org/ and http://www.scipy.org/).  For a more complete
list see: http://www.scipy.org/Topical_Software  You'll see that Python is
used extensively in many science and engineering contexts.  Lastly regarding
(user) interfaces -- as has already been pointed out, Python can obviously
do UI's, but it's by no means limited to being some sort of front-end
language.

Anyway, I think I'll leave it at that for now.

Walter
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