> II. Modelers have to be coders Since you can basically use numpy like a large calculator, it seems like a potentially useful tool to have under your belt. An

> II. Modelers have to be coders Since you can basically use numpy like a large calculator, it seems like a potentially useful tool to have under your belt. And matplotlib is good for making graphs. Python/numpy/etc. seems like a reasonable alternative to matlab (etc.) in many cases. Symbolic math tools like Mathematica are useful as well. It's certainly helpful if modelers can understand the code that implements the model and spot obvious errors in the code as well as in the results. It's also extremely beneficial if whoever is writing, testing, and using the model code has a very good understanding of the model itself. A potential step toward this happen is implementing the model as a standalone library of very straightforward code that everyone on the project can understand.