what little I know: The numbers I heard are that Python is 10-100 times slower than C. So use Python if you can wait 10-100 times longer. Although it won't really be that slow using numpy and/or psyco.
Python seems to have a really extensive reportoire of modules available for it. Although I don't know about things in the math field. If what you want is obscure enough, then you might find it for C/C++ and not Python. You might find out in a few seconds by googling. The advantage to Python (other than production time), is that it would be a lot simpler and more readable simply as a syntax for conveying algorithms. It would be like pseudo-code... but runnable. ;) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
