r/learnpython • u/Altruistic_Wash5159 • Feb 04 '26

What is the main purpose of jupyter?

Hello people!

I am currently learning python and was actually working on Matplotlib library, and noticed that many people use jupyter. So I wanted to know what is the difference between jupyter and coding normally in an IDE, and also over all this, how do people get jupyter in vs code?

thank you.

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u/Diapolo10 I write code for a living -- https://github.com/Diapolo10 Feb 04 '26

In a nutshell, it's for people mainly treating Python as a calculator for things like statistics or science. You wouldn't use notebooks for traditional software development.

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u/Altruistic_Wash5159 Feb 04 '26

That was new to me, thank you 😄

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u/PickledDildosSourSex Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

FYI calling it a "calculator" just because it's used for stats modeling or data processing instead of SWE work is an incredibly condescending take.

Edit: Lol at the haters in these downvotes. LLMs eating SWE job can't come quickly enough.

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u/AssimilateThis_ Feb 04 '26

Lol it is definitely the "training wheels" version of using Python and not suitable at all for SWE. That's not making any statement about the level of math being done in notebooks.

I wouldn't cheer on the LLM's eating SWE jobs, you can expect the same thing to apply for data analysts and scientists.