This chapter looked at some third-party tools that interoperate well with IPython: R, Octave, and Hy.

R is a language specialized for use in statistics and data visualization. It has several advantages, including a rich collection of libraries, a large user base skilled in statistics, easy graphics, and a syntax that allows the economic expression of statistical ideas. IPython can complement this with its huge collection of general-purpose libraries and a syntax that will be more familiar to most developers. At present, R and Python are struggling for supremacy in the data analysis realm—there is no reason they cannot work together.

Octave is another language specialized for numerical computing. Its initial draw is as an open source alternative to MATLAB. The two languages are highly compatible, providing access to a large library of already written MATLAB functions to the Octave user. Octave is particularly strong when working with matrices. Until recently, Octave did not come with...