[python-advocacy] Python Libraries for Engineers

[Carl Karsten]

Jan Ulrich Hasecke wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> coming from the web development department of the Python Community I 
> would like to know which are the most important libraries or Python 
> projects for engineers.
> 
> Background of my questrion: One of my clients wants to support Open 
> Source Software if it is suitable for engineers.
> 

I passed this on to a friend - here is his response:
"""
This is an interesting question, i use numpy/scipy a lot now, there are
other stuff which is important, the viz stuff (vtk) the hdf5 stuff
(pytables) and so on.  There is a huge problem with using these libraries
though, you can't just "share" your code with people.  you have huge
baggage that you need to carry around.  The world of sci computing means
hoping from machine to machien to get your job done.  If i use python as a
soln technique i only really want to use python, not any non-standard
libraries.  It is the reason we are thinking of moving from python back to
something like c/c++ for lots of our work.  If you give someone your code
and you say, well you have to get these 100 things installed to run this,
it makes people not wanna use your stuff.  It is bad enough to rely on a
standard compiler and having mpi installed.

If one is installing a software system for engineers, they could/should
roll all their stuff up into an easy to use package to really have it
picked up.
"""
Carl K