How to use the scripts?

The scripts are written in Python, an interpreted language well suited for numerical experiments, thanks to a larget set of freely available libraries. The most important ones are numpy (basic structures like vectors and arrays, and simple manipulations of these structures) and scipy (numerical algorithms to solve many problems common in physics, like diagonalization of matrices, solution of ordinary differential equation, numerical integration, etc.). Many routines in these libraries are written in low-level languages like C/C++, making them computationally efficient. Matplotlib can be used to display results (you may prefer gnuplot or xmgrace if you are using Linux; for Window$ users, there are many non-free good plotting tools).

You are STRONGLY encouraged to use a free (as in speech, sometimes also as in beer) operating system such as Linux. Some scientists prefer to MacOS which, although not free, is not too bad. You may also use M$-Window$ at your own risks. If you have any problem for running the scripts on  M$-Window$, I will NOT provide any help.

Installing Python is usually easy, see here.

Some scripts do not require numpy and scipy, most of them use numpy, and, among these ones, a noticeable fraction use scipy. Usually, a script creates one or several output readable files (formatted in ASCII). Use your favorite plotting tools to inspect the results.

All scripts are copyrighted by me (and occasionally also by others) and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published bythe Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or  (at your option) any later version. This means that you can modify and/or redistribute them, provided you keep the GPL license.

If you find any error in these scripts, please inform me (preferably by email at Dominique.Delande[at]lkb.upmc.fr) and I will try to correct it.

If you correct, improve or extend these scripts, I will appreciate if you drop me a line. If I decide to incorporate your changes in a future version, I will give you proper credit.

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Installation of numpy and scipy on the computers of room 1F08

The computers only have a old version of numpy and no scipy installed. Installing uptodate version using pip is possible. Type the following commands (thanks to Krzysztof Biedron):

 wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
 python get-pip.py --user
 ~/.local/bin/pip install numpy --upgrade --user
 ~/.local/bin/pip install scipy --user