Installing python

In order to use python for scientific computing you will need to install:

1. The python language
2. A set of modules that allow you to manipulate data, plot, etc.

Basic Python

If you are using Linux or Mac OS you most probably have python already installed. If you are using Windows you can download python from http://www.python.org/getit/. From there download and run “Python 2.7.3 Windows Installer”.

Python has now two active versions, 2.7.3 and 3.2.3. While the 3.* versions are the future of python, right now most modules support the 2.* version, so we will use that.

Scientific modules

There are various useful modules for scientific programming with python. Among other:

• Numpy - Allows fast N-dimensional array manipulation (http://numpy.scipy.org/)
• Scipy - A collection open-source software for mathematics, science, and engineering (http://www.scipy.org/)
• Matplotlib - A library for plotting data (http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/)

While installing all these is relatively easy, it’s even easier to install a collection of these and many other useful modules for scientific computing.

A very good collection is Anaconda. Anaconda can be installed in Windows, Linux, and MacOS X, and includes:

• The above mentioned modules
• Spyder - “a powerful interactive development environment for the Python language with advanced editing, interactive testing, debugging and introspection features”
• ipython - “a powerful Python shells” suitable for interactive scientific computing.
• and hundreds of more modules that you (might) need.

After installing Anaconda you are ready to start using python!