[Discuss] SciPy and F2PY

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2007-07-23 14:49-0700 Deryk Barker wrote:

> Alan W. Irwin wrote:
>> My discovery of F2py has made my day.

> Then you really need to check out SWIG, the Simplified Wrapper Interface 
> Generator, which will enable you to use C/C++ etc in your 
> python/perl/whatever scripting language.

I like SWIG, but it interfaces many languages to _just_ C/C++ libraries.
(For example, we use SWIG to generate Python and Java interfaces to the core
C library for PLplot.) In contrast, F2py interfaces just Python to just
Fortran (or C) libraries. That access to Fortran libraries is fundamentally
important in a science context because of all that useful Fortran code out
there.  The "just Python" limitation of F2py may be a deal-breaker for some,
but I count myself part of the strong Python scientific programming
community.  That community needs access to Fortran libraries so F2py fills
an important Fortran need that SWIG will never be able to supply.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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