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Scientific Python software stack

Good students in Mécatronique or any other field of science and technology work with the Python computer programming language and its scientific extensions. Reproducible and sustainable science requires reproducible calculations. Open-source software (OSS) libraries are the best way to achieve this reproducibility, giving access to scientific calculations to all. However, with some OSS libraries depending on other OSS libraries depending on yet other libraries, headaches occur and computer terminals end up being thrown out of the window.

We are on a continuous quest to find the simplest method for setting up a working scientific Python stack that also young students can follow. Every year or so, a new "best" method appeared and then went away or stopped working. However, now we found a lasting method, that works across Windows, OS X and Linux operating systems. This is thanks to two software package distribution initiatives.

It is especially the conda-forge initiative that enables installation of many well-known community-contributed software packages.

The latest installation instructions for Python mécatronique can be found in this GitHub repository.

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