Python in sci/tech applications

[Thomas Nelson]

How hard would it be to have numpy/ scipy part of the python standard
library?
Tom


mattf wrote:
> I've discovered Python and have been trying it out lately as a possible
> replacement for computations that would ordinarily be done with a
> commercial package like Matlab or IDL. I'd like to mention a few things
> I've run across that have either surprised me or kept me from doing
> things the way I'd like to.
>
> 1) -There's a large and active sci/tech Python community out there.-
> This was something of a surprise. If you look at the python.org site
> and click down a couple of levels past the front page, there's a rather
> brief mention of scientific and numeric applications-- but I don't
> think this does justice to the current levels of activity and
> accomplishment.
>
> 2) -There's a very impressive set of libraries out there-
> NumPy, SciPy, Enthought. It's really kind of stunning how mature these
> libraries are and how much I had to poke around to figure that out.
>
> 3) -There's a problem with development under Windows.
> A typical task will entail writing a 'pure python' prototype to get the
> 'data in, data out' part of a problem straightened out, then writing a
> module in C to get adequate performance in production runs. But the C
> compiler that my employer provides (the current version of MSVS)
> doesn't produce libraries that work with the current version of Python.
> Ooops. This, in the real world, is a big problem. I -love- Python. And
> I think I could convince other people to use it. But I've got to have a
> way to produce compiled modules painlessly, i.e., without installing a
> new operating system.