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Python as a numerical prototyping language.

Lou Pecora pecora at anvil.nrl.navy.mil
Wed Dec 17 10:06:59 EST 2003 
In article <mailman.239.1071654842.9307.python-list at python.org>,
 Oren Tirosh <oren-py-l at hishome.net> wrote:

> > Where is Python heading? Will it be a viable replacement for traditional
> > number-crunching languages in the near-term future?
> 
> It already is. When dealing with large vectors Numerical Python is your 
> friend. The overhead of the interpreter is negligible since most of the 
> time is spent in highly optimized vector operations.
> 
> When operations are done on individual objects Python is significantly 
> slower than compiled languages but psyco is making great progress in this
> area. It already approaches the performance of C for simple code using
> only integers and floats.
> 
>    Oren

This is good news.  I, too, use Python preferentially for numerics, 
especially exploration of algorithms and numerical techniques.  I gave 
up on Mathematica long ago (powerful, but awful for programming) and 
I've avoided MatLab so far (good, but not as nice as Python to program 
and expensive).  Only problem ocassionally is that many engineers were 
raised on MatLAB and expect to be handed MatLab files/scripts to just 
run on their data.  

I'll have to check Psyco.  If it does what you say, that would be a BIG 
step.

-- 
-- Lou Pecora
     My views are my own.
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