[BioPython] PDBParser looking for Numeric module

[Michiel De Hoon]

Use this link:
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/

Don't use this one:
> http://numeric.scipy.org/

> The numeric libraries have been around for a long time (reaching version
> 24.2) and are well tested.

> However, its developers are moving to numpy instead - at some point
> BioPython will eventually need to convert its code to the replacement
> library.

Note that currently the Numerical Python maintainers are the same people as
the SciPy developers -- the new numpy module was originally called
scipy-core; one of its goals was to force people to start using SciPy by
removing parts of Numerical Python, such as LinearAlgebra and FFT. Note also
that the documentation for numpy is not free. Given the success of good old
Numerical Python, I doubt that numpy will replace Numerical Python any time
soon, if ever. Therefore, I don't think that Biopython should convert to
numpy unless most other Python packages relevant to computational biology do
so.

--Michiel.


Michiel de Hoon
Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Columbia University
1150 St Nicholas Avenue
New York, NY 10032