Tutorials for Python and Scipy

Python

The first thing to do in learning how to use Brian is to have a basic grasp of the Python programming language. There are lots of good tutorials already out there. The best one is probably the official Python tutorial. There is also a course for biologists at the Pasteur Institute: Introduction to programming using Python.

NumPy, SciPy and Pylab

The first place to look is the SciPy documentation website. To start using Brian, you do not need to understand much about how NumPy and SciPy work, although understanding how their array structures work will be useful for more advanced uses of Brian.

The syntax of the Numpy and Pylab functions is very similar to Matlab. If you already know Matlab, you could read this tutorial: NumPy for Matlab users and this list of Matlab-Python translations (pdf version here). A tutorial is also available on the web site of Pylab.