"Sometimes the middle of the herd is a good place to be."
(In response to the question "Why spend time migrating to Python?" at a Users Committee meeting)
That was in 2007 and in the interim Python has become firmly established as the primary scripting language in astronomy. The ease of interfacing C / C++ / FORTRAN means many organizations are using Python user front-ends with a combination of compiled code + Python on the back-end.
- Radio / Submm (NRAO, ESO, JAOJ, CSIRO): CASA
- IR: HIPE (Herschel Interactive Processing Environment)
- Optical: STSci (PyRAF, PyFITS)
- Optical: Gemini IRAF package - new development in Python
- Optical: ESO PyMidas
- X-ray: Chandra CIAO and Sherpa
- Gamma-ray: Fermi Science Analysis tools
Resources, resources, resources!
- Discussions and people answering questions
- CfA pythonusers mailing list (over 100 subscribers)
- astropython.org
- astropy mailing list
- stackoverflow
- Conferences: SciPy and EuroSciPy
- Tutorials
- SciPy Intro and Advanced tutorials [1]
- SciPy astronomy tutorial (144 pages!)
- Dive into Python
- ... and many more ...
- Lists of resources
- Books:
- Amazon "python science engineering"
- Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional
- Learning Python
- ... and hundreds more ...
| [1] | I could not untar the "tgz" (tar.gz) version but the "zip" archive was fine. |
Bioinformatics (computational molecular biology)
As seen at biopython.org.
From the SciPy Topical Software wiki:
- Artificial intelligence & machine learning
- Bayesian Statistics
- Biology (including Neuroscience)
- Dynamical systems
- Economics and Econometrics
- Electromagnetics
- Electrical Engineering
- Geosciences
- Molecular modeling
- Signal processing
- Symbolic math, number theory, etc.