python - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Python vs. R: The battle for data scientist mind share

  Here’s how the general-purpose favorite of scientists stacks up against the stat head’s data-honed tool of choice

• Python 3.6 is packed with goodness

  More async support, more type-hinting power, more speed, and more efficient memory usage top a long list of useful additions to Python

• 3 new programming languages: What their creators say

  Developers of emerging programming languages shed light on the urge to create new tools

• Q&A: Guido van Rossum on Python's next steps

  Mobile use, support via WebAssembly, and many imaginative options are in in the works for the popular object-oriented language

• The dark side of the beloved Python

  The schism between Python 2.x and 3.x and other deficiencies frustrate its enthusiastic developer community

• Aussie SkyMapper Telescope to “open new windows of exploration”

  SkyMapper, a newly-launched Australian observatory is playing a key role in the Southern Sky Survey project, a five-year initiative to map and study the observable universe from the southern hemisphere. Yet while Skymapper has the potential to find objects as large as Pluto drifting in our outer solar system and quasi-stellar objects on the far edge of the universe, scientists say the project is equally important because it heralds the arrival of a new era in astronomy -- one where researchers can draw on freely available online data about the universe instead of having to wait months, or even years, for a chance to observe the night sky through a billion-dollar physical telescope. The project is also powered by some serious IT and relies heavily on the open source community to run. It will also create one of Australia's largest databases at around 470 terabytes.