Difference between scipy.optimize.fmin and scipy.optimize.minimize

Question

I'm learning python to make models these days. I read the documentation of scipy.optimize.fmin. It also recommends scipy.optimize.minimize. It seems that scipy.optimize.minimize is a more advanced method. Real wonder what's the difference between these two.

Answer 1

scipy.optimize.minimize is a high-level interface that lets you choose from a broad range of solvers, one of which is Nelder–Mead. scipy.optimize.fmin is a special solver using Nelder–Mead. For a specific subdocumentation of minimize with Nelder–Mead, see here.