Additional Resources on Python
==============================

`Python <http://www.python.org>`_ is a programming language gaining popularity
in the sciences. It's open source, free, and an array of existing libraries
mean you can often find code that will do some task for you.

Python is also used outside science and engineering as a general scripting
language, on the web, and powering desktop applications. There is a large,
global community of Python users across many disciplines, making it a useful
language to know when your work starts to intersect with that of others
outside your lab or team.

Useful Python Links
-------------------

Core Python
~~~~~~~~~~~

- Main Python Docs

 - http://docs.python.org/

- Global Module Index

 - Built in modules like os, sys, datetime, math, random...
 - http://docs.python.org/modindex.html

- Built-in Functions

 - Built-in, always available functions like open, range, enumerate, zip...
 - http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html

- String Formatting

 - http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#formatstrings

Python in Science
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- `NumPy <http://numpy.scipy.org/>`_

 - Fast arrays, used by almost every scientific Python package

- `SciPy <http://www.scipy.org/>`_

 - Minimization, fitting, solvers, statistics, and more

- `matplotlib <http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/>`_

 - 2D and 3D plotting, maps

- `AstroPy <http://astropy.org>`_ for astronomy
- `Biopython <http://biopython.org/wiki/Biopython>`_ for bioinformatics
- `Sage <http://www.sagemath.org/>`_ for mathematic analysis
- `SymPy <http://sympy.org/en/index.html>`_ for symbolic mathematics
- `pandas <http://pandas.pydata.org/>`_ data analysis and stats for categorical
  and time series data