And I have learnt the basics (and some of the Advanced, as per the article) of Python before numpy even existed. Mixing external libraries, however useful!, wit

And I have learnt the basics (and some of the Advanced, as per the article) of Python before numpy even existed. Mixing external libraries, however useful!, with the language itself is not good. "Batteries included" would be very fine here - it comes with the language and that was one of the original (selling? nah, _utility_) points of Python (and now with the external stuff that has morphed... to its life-line really; so never underestimate the ecosystem!).