Season's greetings, folks. Here at the 'Dump, we've decided to broaden our horizons and pick up some competence in Python programming, so there will be a predictable outflow of posts on that topic in the near future. As you may know, Matlab has long been the program (and pseudo-language) of choice around here, but after having discovered SAGE Math, an open-source Python-based computational program of impressive power, versatility and rendering ability, we're thinking hard about making a transition.
In a nutshell, SAGE takes advantage of a number of a number of formerly stand-alone programs (see the Wiki here) for doing particular types of computations and groups them under one umbrella and a Python interface. We compiled SAGE from source in a brand-new Ubuntu 9.10 install and, after a whopping four hour or so wait, was treated to the command line. (Note that the program also has a browser-based GUI if you prefer that.) Whether you are interested in solving differential equations, doing matrix algebra, statistics, or playing in number theory, SAGE is the open-source solution. It also features some very nice plotting capabilities thanks to the matplotlib library (gallery) and renders in 3D with Jmol.
But what about this Python thing? If you are on a Linux rig, you've already got Python. You probably just need to get IDLE, the developing environment, and play around in it for a bit. There is one particularly good series of tutorials on YouTube that will get you more than started. There are also free books like this one and this one for some extra help. Whatever you learn about Python will translate over to an easier time using SAGE.
Stay tooned.
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