In my experience by far the easiest to get something running to play with is using Winpython. Download and unzip (and maybe add to system path) and most of the data analysis stack is available.
Sure -- if someone comes to me wanting to use python for scientific/computational computing, I point them to one of the distributions -- maybe I'll add WinPython to that list now.
But if someone is already using python for, say web development, then they already have an installation up and running, and I want to give them an easy option to add numpy (and secondarily scipy) to what they have easily.
And it looks like we are almost there, thanks to a lot of work by a few key folks -- thanks!
-Chris
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Christopher Barker, Ph.D. Oceanographer
Emergency Response Division NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice 7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception