Introduction to Computing with Python

Abstract

This book is about using Python for numerical computing. Python is a high-level, general-purpose interpreted programming language that is widely used in scientific computing and engineering. As a general-purpose language, Python was not specifically designed for numerical computing, but many of its characteristics make it well suited for this task. First and foremost, Python is well known for its clean and easy-to-read code syntax. Good code readability improves maintainability, which in general results in less bugs and better applications overall, but it also encourages rapid code development. This readability and expressiveness is essential in exploratory and interactive computing, which requires fast turnaround for testing various ideas and models.