hi, I finished a simple text formatted document called "A beginners guide to using Python for performance computing" I've attached it along with the following files. If you find it useful put up at scipy by all means. laplace.py -- all the Python stuff (slow, numeric, blitz, inline, fortran, fastinline). flaplace.f -- the fortran subroutine (thanks to Pearu). laplace.cxx -- the c++ version of the solver, compile it like so: g++ laplace.cxx -O3 -o laplace Here are some timing results for a 500x500 grid for 100 iterations. Slow python estimate: 1897.0 s Numeric: 29.0 s Blitz: 10.2 s Inline: 4.30 s Fast Inline: 2.9 s Python/Fortran: 3.2 s Pure C++: 2.4 s prabhu