mclaugb said:
Is Scipy the same thing as ScientificPython?
I am confused if SciPy is just the new version. they appear to be separate
things.
Bryan
No, Scientific Python is "a collection of Python modules that are useful
for scientific computing" written by Konrad Hinsen. I'm not a user, but
you can find information here:
http://starship.python.net/~hinsen/ScientificPython/
SciPy is, I believe, a more recent and more ambitious project. In any
event it is not directly related to ScientficPython. Information here:
http://scipy.org/
Both of these packages are built on top of one of the three extant array
extensions for Python. To try to clear up some of the confusion around
those, let me summarize the states of these three packages as I
understand it:
Numeric: This is the origingal array package.
Numarray: This was written as a replacement for Numeric. It has improved
performance for large arrays. The internals were also simplified and
many other improvements were made (arrays were subclassable, numeric
signal handling vastly improved, etc). Unfortunately, a side effect of
the changes was that small array performance got worse. There was a
signifigant chunk of the numeric community for whom this was a deal
breaker and as a result there ended up being a split between the Numeric
and Numarray communities.
Numpy: This is a rewrite of Numeric that incorporates most of the
improvements in Numarray. It is designed to bring the two halves of the
Python numeric community back together. So far, it seems to have gotten
a positive reception. It is currently at 0.9.4 and I expect a stable 1.0
version in relatively short order. If I were starting with Python
numerics, this is where I would start, although I've yet to start
converting my Numarray based code over.
I hope that sheds some light on this.
regards,
-tim
