[Python-ideas] Pre-PEP: adding a statistics module to Python

[Andrew McNabb]

On Sun, Aug 04, 2013 at 05:51:45AM -0700, Eli Bendersky wrote:
> 
> Efforts are better spent in writing a new tutorial on Numpy that shows
> how to do the stuff statistics.py does. Call it "Numpy statistics for
> the average person".

> [Sorry to have beaten on this average thing so much; patronization
> drives me mad]

As someone who uses numpy heavily, I think that Numpy is no replacement
for having a basic statistics module in the standard library.  Numpy is
heavy in dependencies (Fortran, LAPACK, etc.), in load time, and
conceptually.  It is difficult to install from source, so it's
unavailable on many systems with Python.  Numpy is great, but it
involves enough commitment that it's not something to rely on casually.

I use Numpy all the time, but I would also use a stats library in the
standard library.

--
Andrew McNabb
http://www.mcnabbs.org/andrew/
PGP Fingerprint: 8A17 B57C 6879 1863 DE55  8012 AB4D 6098 8826 6868