1.3) Tools Python Can Replace

You could replace the following tools with Python and its variety of libraries:

• Excel (spreadsheet/tables)
• R (statistics)
• Matlab, IDL (scientific computing and visualisation) with Numpy
• Mathematica or Maple (mathematical software) with Sage (http://rpy.sourceforge.net/)
• Fortran, C++ (scientific programming)
• bash/ksh/csh (scripting languages for managing data)
• Sigmaplot, gnuplot (plotting, graphics) with matplotlib (http://matplotlib.org/index.html)
• Many other specialised scientific software...

The even better news is that most of these tools can also be integrated or used within your Python code in a seamless way, so you can still use their functionalities and re-use old code.