Python

Python (http://www.python.org) is a general purpose programming language. To be very specific about it, it's an interpreted scripting language. It's also the preferred language of the authors at NumberGrinder.

What we like about Python so much is that the syntax is clear, the modules powerful, it supports different styles of programming, and in general it makes programming fun and easy for us. While people have different preferences for languages, and no one language is suitable for all tasks, Python is the first thing we reach for when we need to do some programming work.

It has modules for drawing all sorts of graphs, ways to interface with fast scientific libraries such as ATLAS/BLAS, do large matrix calculations, and just about anything else you want to do.