Research: python

research/python.mdwn

+[[!meta title="Python"]]
+
+## Learning Python
+
+### General
+
+* Everything is an object. Really? What about symbols like + - and =?
+* The `dir()` and `help()` functions are really useful.
+* Great idea: iteration protocol.
+* There are sequences and sum operations common for all types and specific type operations.
+
+### Iteration and optimization
+
+    In general, leading and trailing double underscores is the naming pattern
+    Python uses for implementation details. The names without the underscores in
+    this list are the callable methods on string objects.
+
+### Polymorphism
+
+Python encourages polymorphism:
+
+    This is related to the idea of polymorphism mentioned earlier, and it stems
+    from Python’s lack of type declarations. As you’ll learn, in Python, we code to
+    object interfaces (operations supported), not to types. That is, we care what
+    an object does, not what it is. Not caring about specific types means that code
+    is automatically applicable to many of them—any object with a compatible
+    interface will work, regardless of its specific type. Although type checking is
+    supported—and even required in some rare cases—you’ll see that it’s not usually
+    the “Pythonic” way of thinking. In fact, you’ll find that polymorphism is
+    probably the key idea behind using Python well.
+
+### Numeric Display Formats
+
+* [14. Floating Point Arithmetic: Issues and Limitations — Python 2.7.13 documentation](https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/floatingpoint.html)
+* [What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic](https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html)
+* [Floating-point arithmetic - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_arithmetic).
+
+    This floating-point limitation is especially apparent for values that cannot be
+    represented accurately given their limited number of bits in memory.
+
+    [...]
+
+    fractions and decimals both allow more intuitive and accurate results than
+    floating points sometimes can, in different ways—by using rational
+    representation and by limiting precision
+
+## Libraries
+
+* [SciPy.org — SciPy.org](https://www.scipy.org/) ([package](https://packages.debian.org/stable/python-scipy)).