Directly open Spyder or open it through Pythonxy?

Question

Previously, I have been running Python in Spyder. I always started Spyder by directly double clicking its icon.

Today, I suddenly realize that I have another thing called Python(x,y). I notice that I can also start Spyder through it.

Do these two methods make any difference? If not, what is the meaning of Python(x,y)? Does it have any other good features?

Answer 1

1. Python(x,y)

   Python(x,y) is a scientific Python distribution. This means that it not only installs Python in your system but also the most important scientific packages needed for a scientist to be productive with the language.

   These packages are difficult to install by the user and also are too many to be installed one by one, so that's why Python(x,y) offers the possibility to install them all at once.

2. Spyder

   Spyder is one of the packages distributed by Python(x,y), which offers a simple and convenient graphical environment to use the other scientific packages (like numpy or matplotlib). It resembles Matlab in its design.

Perhaps a comparison to Matlab is worth here:

1. Matlab is a huge program (about 5 gigs) that it's developed by one company and comes with a lot of packages and a graphical interface to use it.

2. Python(x,y) is also a big program (about 1 gig) but it's developed by two individuals who collect a lot of open source programs developed by a lot of different groups and institutions. It also comes with a graphical interface (Spyder) but there are others that fulfill a similar purpose (like the IPython notebook).

   So in the Python scientific world, every package is developed independently of each other and there is the need of a "meta" program (like Python(x,y)) that distributes them together.

Answer 2

Actually i did not use spyder alone, but when you open it through Python(x,y) which is a scientific oriented distribution, some packages that are used in scientific/numeric computing automatically loaded.
Python(x,y) is based on python, Qt, spyder and includes many tools for scientific/numeric computation, visualizing (2D-3D), etc.
https://code.google.com/p/pythonxy/