Different versions of Python
One of the most frequently asked questions related to Python's installation is which version we should download. At this stage, any latest version would be fine, that is, the version does not matter. There are three reasons behind this statement:
- The contents of the first four chapters are compatible with any version
- Removing and downloading Python is trivial
- Different versions could coexist
Later in the book, we will explain the module dependency which is associated with a Python version. A module is a collection of many Python programs, written by one or a group of experts, to serve a special purpose. For example, we will discuss a module called Statsmodels, which is related to statistical and econometric models, linear regression and the like. Generally speaking, we have built-in modules, standard modules, third-party modules, and modules built by ourselves. We will spend several chapters on this important topic.
In this book, we will mention about two dozen modules. In particular, we will discuss in detail the NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Pandas, and Statsmodels modules. The NumPy, Matplotlib, and Statsmodels modules depend on Python 2.7 or above. All these packages have different versions for Python 2.x (2.5-2.6 and above, depending on the case).
