Wrap-Up

Overview

Teaching: 20 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• What have we learned?

• What else is out there and where do I find it?

Objectives

• Name and locate scientific Python community sites for software, workshops, and help.

Leslie Lamport once said, “Writing is nature’s way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is.” The same is true of programming: many things that seem obvious when we’re thinking about them turn out to be anything but when we have to explain them precisely.

Python supports a large community within and outwith research.

• The Python 3 documentation covers the core language and the standard library.

• PyCon is the largest annual conference for the Python community.

Python Distributions

• Anaconda - Anaconda, the “kitchen sink” distribution of Python.

• Miniconda - Minimal version of the conda installer which can install Python libraries.

• Jupyter is the home of the Jupyter Notebook.

• osgeo4w open source geographic software for Windows. Includes a python distribution for geographical applications.

Useful Libraries

• SciPy is a rich collection of scientific utilities. It is also the name of a series of annual conferences.

• NumPy is a library for numerical operations such as matrix manipulation.

• Pandas is the home of the Pandas data library.

• Matplotlib is home to the matplotlib library.

• sklearn is home to the Scikit-learn machine learning library.

• biopython is home to the biopython library which has lots of useful bioinformatics and biology related functions.

• GDAL is home to the geospatial data abstraction library which includes a python version.

• SymPy is home to the Symbolic Maths library.

• openCV is home to the OpenCV computer vision library.

Extra Help

• Stack Overflow’s general Python section can be helpful, as can the sections on NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, and other topics.

Key Points

• Python supports a large community within and outwith research.