Python Support

This page provides support for students and faculty using the Python based courseware in connection with courses taught at the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, and in connection with my textbooks on physics of climate and on exploring dynamical systems. The "sysadmin" referred to below is the person setting up the software on whatever computer will be running the courseware. If you, the user, are setting up the software to run on your own computer, then you are the "sysadmin" as well as the "user." Happy trails!

The current Python production versions are 2.6.1 and 3.0, both available from python.org , Version 3.x of Python introduces significant changes in the language which break some backward compatibility. It is recommended that the reader stay with version 2.6 until it becomes absolutely necessary to migrate.

Python language references and tutorials:

My own introduction to Python is here.(Updated 11/10/2005)
Basic Python example scripts and numerical analysis tutorials can be found here
The entire Dive into Python book is available online here. It has a good discussion of how to install and run Python on your own computer. It is also a good general reference on the Python language.
A wealth of valuable Python resources, including downloads and tutorials, can be found at python.org , which is the official Python site
Online is great, but sometimes paper is even better. If you'd like to buy a physical book to help you with Python, I can recommend the following:
Python 2.1 Bible (a little outdated, but very comprehensive and well organized)
Magnus Lee Hetland Practical Python. Apress
Hans Petter Langtangen Python Scripting for Computational Science. Springer. (Recommended especially for Python programmers seeking a master of more advanced topics. This book has good coverage of techniques for using compiled c, c++ or Fortran routines for extending Python. )
Resources for building compiled routine into Python commands:
SWIG (mostly for c and c++, but actually a generalizable tool)
Pyfort
f2py

Resources for the sysadmin

• Setting up your computer as an x11 workstation (see "What is x11" and "About servers and clients" below for why you need to do this)
  • Mac OS X
  • Linux
  • Microsoft Windows

Resources for the user

• What is x11 and why do I need it?
• About servers and clients ("workstations"), remote logins and ssh.
• I just upgraded my Mac to OS 10.4 and now I get mysterious "Bad Window" and "Bad Atom messages when I try to start idle on the server while logged in using ssh -X:
  • Ans: OS 10.4 uses a newer version of ssh. Use ssh -Y and things should work.
• How do I move a file from one computer to another?
• How can I get my Python scripts and text output into my problem set write-ups?
• How can I get my Python-generated graphics into my problem set write-ups?