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Teaching numerics with Python

William Park opengeometry at yahoo.ca
Wed Nov 20 12:22:41 EST 2002 
Antti Rasila <arasila at pcu.helsinki.fi.invalid> wrote:
> 1) ..someone has experience on this kind of usage of Python numerical
> mathematics? We would be happy to hear from your experiences.

I discovered Python while looking for a scripting language to do some
numerical work.  At the time, I was more interested in source code and
algorithm that I can write myself, because I had to make some modification
to well-known FFT routines.  Almost like "Numerical Recipes in Python".

Although I use Python (and Linux) everyday, I really don't think Python is
essential for teaching "scientific computing", if you're simply calling up
already existing libraries.  You can do that in C, C++, or Matlab.  

If you're teaching algorithm, then Python is probably the best language.
It's very easy to translate C/Fortran routines or math algorithms on paper,
and it's very easy to read and write.

-- 
William Park, Open Geometry Consulting, <opengeometry at yahoo.ca>
Linux solution for data management and processing.
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