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Software for Scientific Programming in Python, for Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and iOS

Posted by: Brenton LeMesurier | 2015/11/11 | No Comment |

For teaching and in my own work in scientific computing, I now use primarily the language Python, together with several packages for mathematical and scientific applications: Numpy for basic numerical computing tools for topics such as linear algebra, Matplotlib for graphical presentation of numerical results, and SciPy for more advanced and specialized tools, for differential equations, Fourier series and such.

My recommended core tool for this is the free, cross-platform software Spyder, which combines all of the above with a nice development environment (file editor, debugger, etc.). A related option is  Anaconda which bundles Spyder and several other tools; in particular the interactive notebook system Jupyter and a command line interface IPython. In fact on Mac’s at least, it is easiest to use Anaconda to get everything at once, and with the easiest system for updating. The Jupyter notebooks allow presenting Python programs and their output with related verbal and mathematical explanations into a single document, which can then be output as HTML or PDF.

Several iOS apps now allow numerical and scientific computing to be done on iPads (and even iPhones and iPod Touches).  My favorite is Pythonista, which is a universal app that combines Python itself with Numpy and Matplotlib (but not SciPy). It costs $9.99 as of November 2018.

If anyone knows of comparable software for Android, please let me know!

See the link lists at right under Scientific Computing Tools for more details.

under: mathematics, scientific computing, teaching

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