Scientific Programming with Python

Documentation

Modules for Scientific Computing and Visualization

SciPy/NumPy

pylab

To enable Basemap (on ZMAW Linux ia32/x64 and solaris10) you have to type before starting Python 

module load Python/2.4.4

or 

module unload Python
module load ncl/5.0.0-bin
module load R/2.7.0
module load Python/2.6
module load GNU/4.2.3
module load gdal

In Python you can import the Basemap module by 

from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap

GDAL

PyNGL

To enable PyNGL (on ZMAW Linux ia32/x64 and solaris10) you have to type 

module load PyNGL/1.2.0

Python Interface to GrADS

RPy

F2PY: Fortran to Python interface generator

Calling Fortran code from python is easy! Create a file hello.f: 

C File hello.f
      subroutine foo (a)
      integer a
      print*, "Hello from Fortran!"
      print*, "a=",a
      end

Run f2py -c -m hello hello.f

Now in IPython try: 

In [1]: import hello
In [2]: hello.foo(4)
 Hello from Fortran!
 a=           4

Example taken from

Topical Modules

More topical software can be found at http://scipy.org/Topical_Software

Installation in the home directory

The seawater module is installed on the ZMAW machines for Python 2.6. Use 

module load Python/2.6.2

to set up the environment. In the following it is explained how to install the module for the case if it would be not available or if a different version of python has to be used.

Installation of module seawater in directory ~/modules 

python setup.py install --prefix=~/modules/

Usage 

import sys,os
home=os.getenv('HOME')
genpath=home+'/modules/lib/python2.4/site-packages/'
if not sys.path.__contains__(genpath):
    sys.path.append(genpath)
from seawater import *

Download

A basic system for scientific computing consists of Python, ipython, numpy/scipy, pylab, and an editor of your choice