Why use python?
Switching to another computer language involves learning a whole new set of programing techniques and writing a new suite of tools. In order make this initial investment in time worthwhile, there needs to be some clear (and large) benefit. I believe python is worth the effort to switch for the following reasons: • Python is an extremely powerful programing language. This means that you can use python for a wide variety of programing tasks, not just model analysis. • Python is naturally object oriented. These means programs will also tend to be stronger and more flexible because of the nature of python programing. It is simple to convert a haphazard set of tools into a cohesive toolbox. • There are many freely available packages that can perform tasks you might want to do. In particular, matplotlib has a plotting interface very similar to that of MATLAB, meaning that the learning curve is considerably reduced. Advantages of Python over MATLAB: • As mentioned above, Python is a real, pow
