Scientific Libraries in Python

[Fernando Pérez]

> 
> It's a pity the issue isn't just aesthetics (which I could cheerfully
> ignore), but useability. The merge is worth doing because having a single
> Scientific Python library will give more and richer functionality, with
> less hassle, to scientists and engineers using Python. With the current
> state of affairs, I can't really make the case to my colleagues here (or
> anywhere) to use Python instead of Matlab or Mathematica.
> 
> Such a merge would imply some serious manual labour on someone's part.
> While I'm willing, I'm not able for a few months, but I thought I'd get
> the idea up in front of the relevant community now.
> 

Wholeheartedly agreed. Let's try to keep this alive and going, and hopefully 
we can get things moving to integrate SciPy/Scientific. I recently mentioned 
the GSL (and Prabhu correctly pointed at license issues). If the license 
issues can be addressed, the GSL sounds like a great base layer on which to 
put these two. Prabhu has the very impressive MayaVi project going for 
visualization, and Janko Hauser and I will soon announce (it's still rough 
code, it'll take a few days) an enhanced interactive environment (similar in 
many aspects to Mathematica's, but for Python).

I can't contribute to the core libraries at this point, too busy with my 
thesis and on the side getting the project with Janko going. But I'm sure 
*there is* a lot of interest for this, especially if we can tap on the 
massive amount of work already done by the GSL people.

I am also a believer in having an easy 'import scientific' command to get 
access to a full  set of libraries and utilities with a consistent interface 
without spending a month hunting things  down from 25 different websites. It 
seems most basic blocks are there, it's a matter of coordination and putting 
them together.

Cheers,

f.