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About the Python Environment

Python programs introduced in this blog are tested with Python 3.6. Although most of those should run with Python 2.7 with minor modification, there is not much reason to use v2.7 any more.
GUI is based on wxPython v.4 (a.k.a wxPython Phoenix).


Other frequently used packages are:

  • numpy and scpiy for mathematical data processing
  • matploltlib for data plotting
  • PIL and OpenCv for image processing
  • sounddevice, soundfile, pyserial, etc.



32bit vs. 64bit

Most of the Linux distributions include Python as a standard component, frequently both v2.7 and v3.x. And 32bit applications are quite rare these days. Thus you are not likely to have compatibility issue when installing a new package. In Windows, things are a bit more complicated. Still large percentage of programs are released in 32bit architecture. This is particularly true in engineering software. Thus it is still highly recommended to install 32bit version of Python if your have any chance to interface with those 32bit software. 

Pip(PyPI) vs. Precompiled

If available precompiled installer (or wheel) is preferred to pip . Certain packages may require special build step to fully optimize the library. Or they may have other dependencies depending on your O/S. Pip versions are not good at providing such fine tuning in general. If the package is written purely in Python, then it does not matter. In Windows, most of the prebuilt packages can be found in this site. You can instead choose to install a complete python suite such as Anaconda, Enthought Canopy, or WinPython. However they come at a cost, whether you actually pay or not. Furthermore managing packages are not as difficult as it may seem unless you have to deal with very large collection of packages. In Linux, each distribution usually provides most of the prebuilt packages, for example if your Linux supports Debian (Ubuntu) package system, you should be able to find packages like python-numpy.

wxPython

As of this writing, the most recent version of wxPython is v4.0.0b2. This pheonix version of wxPython is so much better than previous one. In Windows, you can install it with pip.  Alternatively you can install snapshot build. In Linux, you may prefer to build it from the scratch until official releases appear in major distributions.


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