Numpy, scipy, matplotlib, and pylab are common terms among they who use python for scientific computation. I just learn a bit about pylab, and I got a lot of confusion. Whenever I want to import numpy, I can always do: import numpy as np I just consider, that once I do from pylab import * The numpy will be imported as well (with np alias). So basically the second one do more things compared to the first one. There are few things I want to ask. Is it right that pylab is just a wrapper for numpy, scipy and matplotlib? As np is the numpy alias, what is the scipy and matplotlib alias? (as far as I know, plt is alias of matplotlib.pyplot, but I don't know the alias for the matplotlib itself) Thanks in advance.