Python¶
Python is one of the most popular languages used and is used extensively in the scientific community.
- Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.
- Python has a very clear syntax and is relatively easy to learn.
- Python is portable; it runs on many Unix variants such as Linux and Apple OSX, and on Microsoft Windows.
However, Python is usually very slow compared to other compiled languages. In most situations it runs about one hundred times slower than the equivenent code in C or FORTRAN. If you really need your code to run fast you should consider using other languages. You might even consider looking at Julia.
There are a few different distributions of Python that you can install in your home directory. We would advise you to use Miniconda, see Using Miniconda Python Please try to avoid using Anaconda. See the information below.
Note
There is also an Anaconda Python distribution (https://www.anaconda.com/products/distribution).
We suggest to not use this!
This includes a large number of data-science packages which you will not use.
It’s very very large in size.
Note
Note: Python 2.7 passed the end of its supported life on January 1st, 2020. Python 2.7 is no longer maintained. New Python code should be using Python 3.8 or later.