Python
Python is a programming language widely used in Digital History for text analysis, data visualization, and machine learning.
Why Python?
- Easy to learn — Clean, readable syntax
- Rich ecosystem — Thousands of libraries for data analysis
- Community — Large humanities computing community
- Free — Open source
Key Libraries for Humanities
| Library | Purpose |
|---|---|
| spaCy | Natural language processing |
| NLTK | Text analysis and linguistics |
| pandas | Data manipulation |
| matplotlib | Visualization |
| NetworkX | Network analysis |
| BeautifulSoup | Web scraping |
Getting Started
- Install Python via Anaconda (recommended for beginners)
- Use Jupyter Notebooks for interactive analysis
- Start with the Programming Historian tutorials