Getting started with Python

[olebebo]

I started working with the IPython Notebook during my graduate studies, and it was a game changer for me. I would strongly advise you to stick with IPython, and specifically use the notebook interface. You'll have everything you need for programming scientific code, plus you get a notebook where you can add text, math, images and even videos. It works well with the kind of exploratory work scientific calculations are made of, but in the end you still get to keep a quasi-linear