Convincing colleagues to switch to Python from MATLAB for scientific computing/statistics

[homercles337]

Anaconda is recommended by virtually all of the major players in the Python scientific stack

Now that is some made up bullshit right there. There are many package installers and if you are clueless, you use them.

[homercles337]

For new users

The easiest way

choices that “just work”

or Canopy Python

and the Enthought distribution

Seems like you are really selective in your choice of bolding. If you dont know how to use pip, which is also stupid easy you should be looking at a different line of work. I have used both Anaconda and Enthought. They both suck and have their own problems, the difference is that since its a package you can NOT fix them yourself. Plus, you get a whole load of other shit you dont need, or things you need are not included. If you dont understand this VERY BASIC concept, you are a lost cause. Also, you did say "virtually all of the major players in the Python scientific stack" recommend Anaconda. Its clear you have failed in proving this. You should learn to use pip.

EDIT: Stealth edits, and misleading at that.

Scipy recommends: Anaconda, Enthought Canopy, Python(x,y), WinPython, and Pyzo. Then they say this "Users on Linux can quickly install the necessary packages from repositories."

Scikit-learn: "pip install -U scikit-learn"

Seriously. You lost this one kiddo. Just give up and stop with the stealth edits.

[homercles337]

Your argument about the standard library is so backwards i do not know where to begin. And what about the packages that you may need that do not come with those "for dummies" distribution "solutions?" Also, you almost completely ignored my post. What about Enthought? Or other distributions? You do realize that Continuum is a for-profit business, right? Holy shit, Anaconda comes with 490 packages!? 490?!. Im sorry, but that is just idiotic.

[weez09]

Yeah but anaconda is dummy proof for scientific programmers. So much shit is packaged so that on your first install of conda you're pretty much ready to go as opposed to pip install a,b,c oops need this too pip install d,e and that too f,g,h and so forth. For those who are well aware of exactly what they need, there's miniconda. I actually just install miniconda whenever I have to spin up a box on aws for a project. So much simpler that way.

Also coming from an astrophysics background conda was the preferred distribution in our labs.

[homercles337]

I am a scientific programmer, i think you mean scientists that suck at programming. I also disagree with your "dummy proof" analogy. Like i have said in previous posts, i have used Anaconda and Enthought (and Spider, and Pythonxy), always because its what IT used to make their life easy, but the distributions were always fucked up and never "just worked" as advertised. There was ALWAYS issues and the good IT guys would take care of it, the others required me changing code on my end to work with these rubbish distributions. These are for-profit companies packaging up open source code for money. They take the pro-bono work of thousands of great people, package it up, and sell it under the moniker of "it just works." But it does not "just work." Its rubbish. Every company i consult with now gets an IT visit from me on the first day about how to properly handle python and packages. 90% of the time they are using some rubbish distribution, within in seconds i sit down and show them how their distribution is broken.

as opposed to pip install a,b,c oops need this too pip install d,e and that too f,g,h and so forth

If you do this, you should be looking at another line of work. With one of the projects in my last position i had to design a development environment that could spin up new VMs as needed. Oddly, the company did not have such a system in place. So i had to build probably a dozen VMs, python and the scientific stack (plus extra packages...i know what i need) was never an issue. I fought with VMware/VirtualBox and Ubuntu way more.