I think there was a strong cohort of scientists using matlab, and python and numpy adopt the same language conventions. Going from matlab to python is effortles

I think there was a strong cohort of scientists using matlab, and python and numpy adopt the same language conventions. Going from matlab to python is effortless. Moreover, scientists are typically so-so programmers so not having to worry about complexities like dereferencing pointers, specifying types etc, makes the language much easier to pick up.