[chuug] Programming Language and Libraries for Science

[Will Ashford]

Python sounds like a perfect match for what you're talking about. Word of 
mouth has it that many physicists use it as a desktop calculator because of 
it's seamless support for large numbers (to put it in other terms, 
BigInteger is the only int). That and the amazing list (read, vector) 
structure which should be able to do anything he'd like. Open source and 
runs on most platforms (everything from PSP/Playstation to AIX). 
www.python.org

Will

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 20:19:31 +0200
  "Christopher Covington" <covracer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've got a friend who is a retired optical engineer interested in
> programming applications with relative ease. He really like spin
> controls to alter input data for the physics-related graphs and
> diagrams that he is interested in producing. He has tried various
> languages through the years and firmly believes that Fortran 95 is the
> best language for programming physical stuff, with its easy vector
> operations and the like. The downside is that he never was able to
> easily code graphics like he wanted using it.
> 
> The question is whether y'all can recommend a programming language
> (+libraries) that is handy for fooling around with physics equations,
> has widgets and can produce pretty graphs and diagrams of mutilated
> trigonomic functions or a series of lenses. Inexpensive is a must,
> free preferred. Plus-points for cross-platform.
> 
> Regards,
> Chris
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