Root finding, interpolation and python
I prototyped the codes to find the root of a function, using the bisection, newton-rhapson and secant methods. And then i tried writing a code to do polynomial interpolation. Both of these codes need refinement, the latter more than the former. But i finally wrote code, after two days of putting it off and doing other chores instead of this. And the reason i finally did so was, partially, python. Well, apart from my mood being better today than in the days before, I think trying to write the code in python is what kept me going, instead of say c or fortran.
The reason why I prefer python and ask beginners to use it is because of how easy it is to write a prototype in python. The number of steps from idea to a model are the least in python, in comparison to c or fortran. Relaxed syntax constraints, dynamic type allocation, variable initialization. I don't know which of these, and many other such differences, is the reason why i prefer python over C. Maybe I have an intrinsic bias because I started programming seriously in python, although the first programming language i was introduced to was C. And it maybe easier for people comfortable with C to convert ideas to models in C. Long story short, there is no need for a debate on which programming language is better. There should be a debate however on how to teach programming concepts so that students grasp them faster and become capable of using them as tools.
The reason why I prefer python and ask beginners to use it is because of how easy it is to write a prototype in python. The number of steps from idea to a model are the least in python, in comparison to c or fortran. Relaxed syntax constraints, dynamic type allocation, variable initialization. I don't know which of these, and many other such differences, is the reason why i prefer python over C. Maybe I have an intrinsic bias because I started programming seriously in python, although the first programming language i was introduced to was C. And it maybe easier for people comfortable with C to convert ideas to models in C. Long story short, there is no need for a debate on which programming language is better. There should be a debate however on how to teach programming concepts so that students grasp them faster and become capable of using them as tools.