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Dr. Slack

Fri Nov 23 2012, 12:24PM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

How many users of this board are using Python?

I only started because it's being used at work as a rapid prototyping glue language to build GUIs and wrap C calls, but the more I do with it the more hooked I get.

After starting programming 40 years ago with Basic, then Fortran and assembler, I never really did get into C. When I met my first dynamic language VB through work, I treated it with great suspicion, it just felt ugly.

You *can* use Python as a procedural language, but to ride the horse in the direction it's going, you've got to get chest-deep into OO. It runs native under both 'nux and 'doze, I hate all the wine/bash mucking about.

It has a gazillion libraries, which all use consistent syntax. I was pleasantly surprised to 'import httplib', and within a few minutes be downloading Dilbert cartoons automatically, 'import scipy' and be doing FFTs, 'import matplotlib' and be generating plots as easily as with matlab, 'import reportlab' and create .pdfs from a program (so have finally moved my calendar generator off Excel). The community seems incredibly helpful, the folk at StackOverflow are very patient with my n00b questions.

I'm steadily building up a set of utilities tailored for what I want to do. I've just written a signal generator for the audio output, and am presently writing an oscilloscope for the audio input. This is to eventually allow the use of the audio I/O as a network analyser, component analyser, synchro resolver, and general capacitive transducer measurer for some physics projects I have on the stocks. I've bought some ftdi USB interface modules, but not breathed any life into them yet.

While there are programming forums out there, I can't find any focussed on scientific oriented programming or equipment control. StackOverflow for instance is where the language gurus hang out, rather than the applications. I wonder if there are enough people on this forum doing the same sort of measurement/control thing, with specifically Python, to make it worth sharing modules or tips, perhaps via the wiki?

This is not an invitation to compare languages, or slag off its speed or use of whitespace, fanboys only!

Steve Conner

Fri Nov 23 2012, 01:17PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Never tried it, but after your writeup, I am tempted

I've seen it used with wxWindows to make GUI applications running under Windows.

Dr. Slack

Fri Nov 23 2012, 07:10PM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

It may be specifically Python (the consistency helps) or it may be that the new (to me) OO paradigm suits where I am at the moment. I'm a very lazy programmer, and will move heaven and earth to not have to write the same thing from scratch twice.

You might be amused at this general purpose module I've written. It comes from the oscilloscope requirement. I want the graph Y axis autoscale to work with only 1, 2, 5 increments (how many times have you seen software that autoscales a graph with stupid impossible to mentally interpolate spacing?) Which means I want to quantise numbers onto that sequence. But then how many other very similar requirements are there to do that, like when I'm choosing resistors and want the nearest in the E24 series.

It shows a few features of the language, it should be more or less comprehensible to non python users. """ is the documentation string delimiter. Block scope is by indentation only; it's a Marmite feature, you either love it, or you hate it so much you don't use Python.

Module for arbitrary quantisation of numbers
OK, it's not a particularly scientific share, but it's a start.

Carbon_Rod

Sat Nov 24 2012, 02:54AM

Registered Member #65 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155

If you need to wrap C/C++ than your design is in trouble.

Python is the "new" Java, so has many of the same strengths and weaknesses.

In terms of memory usage and raw speed... C/C++ is about as good as it gets...
In terms of usability for non-entrant member function calls... python is trickier than most...

Like the splice op though [:]

Dr. Slack

Mon Nov 26 2012, 09:05AM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

AudioIO module that gives the pyAudio module a synchronous queue interface and makes it easier to use, and a multi-component sig-gen that makes use of it. Tone_gen is a small module that's used in the self-test of AudioIO. pyAudio wraps the common PortAudio module.

Steve Conner

Mon Nov 26 2012, 10:54AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

IO, IO, it's off to work we go...

You can't really compare C++ with Python. C++ is statically typed with no garbage collection. Fast, but lots of thought and pre-planning required to make a program that even compiles, let alone runs without mysterious memory leaks and crashes.

The new-school languages like Python, Java, and the .NET family are much better for quickly bashing out prototype code. Computers are now so fast that these languages are often perfectly good for delivering the final product too.

PS: here is how I did graph axis scaling before Python was invented

void FrontEndGain::SetScaler(Scaler* pMyScaler)
{
	static const float RoundFSDs[15] =
	{2000, 1000, 500, 250, 
	120, 60, 30, 15, 
	8, 4, 2, 1, 
	0.5, 0.25, 0.1};

	static const int NumDivs[15] =
	{5, 5, 5, 5, 
	6, 6, 6, 3, 
	4, 4, 4, 5, 
	5, 5, 5};

	pMyScaler->SetAnalogGain((float)(1 << MyValue));
	pMyScaler->SetRoundFSD(RoundFSDs[MyValue]);
	pMyScaler->SetNumDivs(NumDivs[MyValue]);

	// Display scales will change, so request a screen redraw.
	InvalidateRect(g_MainWindowHandle, NULL, TRUE);
}

Duality

Fri Jan 11 2013, 12:56AM

Registered Member #1951 Joined: Sun Feb 01 2009, 01:59PM
Location:
Posts: 105

I use python, started about almost two years ago :)

Shrad

Fri Jan 11 2013, 08:48AM

Registered Member #3215 Joined: Sun Sept 19 2010, 08:42PM
Location:
Posts: 780

python + scipy + numpy + matplotlib = better than matlab and FREE

I plotted IASI satellite data with this bundle for 2 years concerning gas traces and atmospheric pollutants, and the quality was enough to be printed on Nature... it tells enough I think

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