Python
Installing python
If you are a Linux or OS-X user, python is already installed on your machine (just type python at the command line).
Otherwise, go to the python website to download (and for a wealth of other information about the language).
And yes, you can use Eclipse or other python-specific IDEs, but that is not very pythonic. Emacs or vi are all you need.
Which version?
Although there is a version 3.x of python, we will still be using 2.x.
Learning python
The executive summary
- What is python. By Guido van Rossum (the guy who started it all).
Free python tutorials/e-books
- The official python tutorial
- How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python
- Dive Into Python
Using python
It is possible to enhance the behavior of the Python interpreter by the addition of tab-completion and command-history. All you need is a python startup file. Here's my minimalist startup file. An alternative is to install interactive python, which provides further enhancements of the python shell.
Packages
- numpy: scientific computing in python; includes powerful array objects and linear algebra functions.
- matplotlib: plotting
odds and ends