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Why scientists should learn to program in Python

Ayer, Vidya M.·Miguez, Sheila·Toby, Brian H. (ORCID:0000000187938285)
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Abstract

Scientists have been central to the historical development of the computer industry, but the importance of software only continues to grow for all areas of scientific research and in particular for powder diffraction. Knowing how to program a computer is a basic and useful skill for scientists. The article introduces the three types of programming languages and why scripting languages are now preferred for scientists. Of them, the authors assert Python is the most useful and easiest to learn. Python is introduced. Also presented is an overview to a few of the many add-on packages available to extend the capabilities of Python, for example, for numerical computations, scientific graphics and graphical user interface programming.

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97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTINGnumerical analysisprogrammingPythonsoftware

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Ayer, Vidya M., Miguez, Sheila, Toby, Brian H. (ORCID:0000000187938285). 2014-12-01. Why scientists should learn to program in Python. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0885715614000931

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