Accessing Python
Required software
Installing software on your laptop: Mac OS X and Windows
Anaconda and Spyder
VMWare Fusion virtual machine
Dual boot on Windows
Vagrant virtual machine
How to write and run a Python program
The SageMathCloud and Wakari web services
Writing IPython notebooks
Different ways of running Python programs
Executing Python programs in iPython
Executing Python programs in Unix
Executing Python programs in Windows
Executing Python programs in Mac OS X
Making a complete stand-alone executable
Doing operating system tasks in Python
Variable number of function arguments
Variable number of positional arguments
Variable number of keyword arguments
Evaluating program efficiency
Making time measurements
Profiling Python programs
References
A comprehensive eco system for scientific computing with Python used to be quite a challenge to install on a computer, especially for newcomers. This problem is more or less solved today. There are several options for getting easy access to Python and the most important packages for scientific computations, so the biggest issue for a newcomer is to make a proper choice. An overview of the possibilities together with my own recommendations appears next.