resources.rst

Additional Resources on Python

Python is a programming language gaining popularity in the sciences. It's open source, free, and an array of existing libraries mean you can often find code that will do some task for you.

Python is also used outside science and engineering as a general scripting language, on the web, and powering desktop applications. There is a large, global community of Python users across many disciplines, making it a useful language to know when your work starts to intersect with that of others outside your lab or team.

Useful Python Links

Core Python

• Main Python Docs

• http://docs.python.org/

• Global Module Index

• Built in modules like os, sys, datetime, math, random...
• http://docs.python.org/modindex.html

• Built-in Functions

• Built-in, always available functions like open, range, enumerate, zip...
• http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html

• String Formatting

• http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#formatstrings

Python in Science

• NumPy

• Fast arrays, used by almost every scientific Python package

• SciPy

• Minimization, fitting, solvers, statistics, and more

• matplotlib

• 2D and 3D plotting, maps

• AstroPy for astronomy
• Biopython for bioinformatics
• Sage for mathematic analysis
• SymPy for symbolic mathematics
• pandas data analysis and stats for categorical and time series data