SymPy Updated 2025-07-16
It also has serious applications obviously. www.sympy.org/scipy-2017-codegen-tutorial/ mentions code generation capabilities, which sounds super cool!
Let's start with some basics. fractions:outputs:Note that this is an exact value, it does not get converted to floating-point numbers where precision could be lost!
from sympy import *
sympify(2)/3 + sympify(1)/27/6We can also do everything with symbols:outputs:We can now evaluate that expression object at any time:outputs:
from sympy import *
x, y = symbols('x y')
expr = x/3 + y/2
print(expr)x/3 + y/2expr.subs({x: 1, y: 2})4/3How about a square root?outputs:so we understand that the value was kept without simplification. And of course:outputs outputs:gives:
x = sqrt(2)
print(x)sqrt(2)sqrt(2)**22. Also:sqrt(-1)II is the imaginary unit. We can use that symbol directly as well, e.g.:I*I-1Let's do some trigonometry:gives:and:gives:The exponential also works:gives;
cos(pi)-1cos(pi/4)sqrt(2)/2exp(I*pi)-1Now for some calculus. To find the derivative of the natural logarithm:outputs:Just read that. One over x. Beauty. And now for some integration:outputs:OK.
from sympy import *
x = symbols('x')
print(diff(ln(x), x))1/xprint(integrate(1/x, x))log(x)Let's do some more. Let's solve a simple differential equation:Doing:outputs:which means:To be fair though, it can't do anything crazy, it likely just goes over known patterns that it has solvers for, e.g. if we change it to:it just blows up:Sad.
y''(t) - 2y'(t) + y(t) = sin(t)from sympy import *
x = symbols('x')
f, g = symbols('f g', cls=Function)
diffeq = Eq(f(x).diff(x, x) - 2*f(x).diff(x) + f(x), sin(x)**4)
print(dsolve(diffeq, f(x)))Eq(f(x), (C1 + C2*x)*exp(x) + cos(x)/2)diffeq = Eq(f(x).diff(x, x)**2 + f(x), 0)NotImplementedError: solve: Cannot solve f(x) + Derivative(f(x), (x, 2))**2Let's try some polynomial equations:which outputs:which is a not amazingly nice version of the quadratic formula. Let's evaluate with some specific constants after the fact:which outputsLet's see if it handles the quartic equation:Something comes out. It takes up the entire terminal. Naughty. And now let's try to mess with it:and this time it spits out something more magic:Oh well.
from sympy import *
x, a, b, c = symbols('x a b c d e f')
eq = Eq(a*x**2 + b*x + c, 0)
sol = solveset(eq, x)
print(sol)FiniteSet(-b/(2*a) - sqrt(-4*a*c + b**2)/(2*a), -b/(2*a) + sqrt(-4*a*c + b**2)/(2*a))sol.subs({a: 1, b: 2, c: 3})FiniteSet(-1 + sqrt(2)*I, -1 - sqrt(2)*I)x, a, b, c, d, e, f = symbols('x a b c d e f')
eq = Eq(e*x**4 + d*x**3 + c*x**2 + b*x + a, 0)
solveset(eq, x)x, a, b, c, d, e, f = symbols('x a b c d e f')
eq = Eq(f*x**5 + e*x**4 + d*x**3 + c*x**2 + b*x + a, 0)
solveset(eq, x)ConditionSet(x, Eq(a + b*x + c*x**2 + d*x**3 + e*x**4 + f*x**5, 0), Complexes)Let's try some linear algebra.Let's invert it:outputs:
m = Matrix([[1, 2], [3, 4]])m**-1Matrix([
[ -2, 1],
[3/2, -1/2]]) Hadron Updated 2025-07-16
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How the hell are you supposed to develop an open source implementation of something that has a closed standard?
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If you are going to do closed source, at least do it like this.
Basically the opposite of need to know for software.
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Closed source on offline products used by millions of people is evil, when you could just have those for free with open source software! Thus Ciro's hatred for Microsoft Windows and MacOS (at least userland, maybe).
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Some anecdotes.
Ciro Santilli never splits up functions unless there is more than one calling point. If you split early, the chances that the interface will be wrong are huge, and a much larger refactoring follows.
int cross_block_var;
// First step.
{
int myvar;
}
// Second step.
{
int myvar;
}Ciro has seen and had to deal with in his lifetime with two projects that had like 3 to 10 git separate Git repositories, all created and maintained by the same small group of developers of the same organization, even though one could not build without the other. Keeping everything in sync was Hell! Why not just have three directories inside a single repository with a single source of truth?
Another important case: Linux should have at least a C standard library, init system, and shell in-tree, like BSD Operating Systems, as mentioned at: Section "Linux".
The development cycle time is your God Updated 2025-07-16
New developers won't want to learn your project, because they would rather shoot themselves.
Of course, at some point software gets large enough that things won't fit anymore in 5 seconds. But then you must have either some kind of build caching, or options to do partial builds/tests that will bring things down to that 5 second mark.
A slow build from scratch will mean that your continuous integration costs a lot, money that could be invested in a new developer!
One anecdote comes to mind. Ciro Santilli was trying to debug something, and more experience colleague came over.
To reproduce a problem, ciro was running one command, wait 5 seconds, run a second command, wait 5 seconds, run a third command:
cmd1
# wait 5 seconds
cmd2
# wait 5 seconds
cmd3The first thing the colleague said: join those three commands into one:And so, Ciro was enlightened.
cmd1;cmd2;cmd3
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There are unlisted articles, also show them or only show them.