Python on Windows

This is old and kind of dated and should probably be cleaned or replaced.

Option 1: Google Colaboratory

Google Colaboratory is the preferred option for many course and research-adjacent Python tasks. Go to Google Colab to create an interactive Python Jupyter notebook.

Option 2: WinPython and Spyder

If you need to run Python locally on Windows, you can use Spyder through WinPython.

1. Download WinPython.
2. Install it on your PC.
3. Open the Spyder application.

Spyder provides a script editor and an output panel.

Spyder on Windows

Plotting Example: sin(x)

Use the following code to plot a simple trigonometric function:

import numpy
import pylab

X = numpy.linspace(0, 1, 100)
Y = numpy.sin(2 * X * numpy.pi)

pylab.plot(X, Y)
pylab.show()

To save a figure instead of showing it interactively:

# pylab.show()
pylab.savefig(r'C:\Users\brunnels\Desktop\myfile.png')

The output format is determined by the file extension.

Plotting Example: Singularity Brackets

The following script plots functions using singularity brackets by defining a bracket function.

import numpy
import pylab

def bracket(x, n):
    return 0.5 * (numpy.sign(x) + 1) * (x**n)

L = 1
X = numpy.linspace(0, 2, 1000)

Y0 = bracket(X - L, 0)
Y1 = bracket(X - L, 1)
Y2 = bracket(X - L, 2)

pylab.plot(X, Y0, label="^0")
pylab.plot(X, Y1, label="^1")
pylab.plot(X, Y2, label="^2")

pylab.legend()
pylab.show()

Example output:

Singularity bracket plot