SciPy's description could have been better. However, if Python/SciPy feels like a cheap knockoff, it's entirely your fault. By that logic, SciPy is also a cheap knockoff of BASIC, C#, R, Tcl, etc. "NumPy and SciPy were created to do numerical and scientific computing in the most natural way with Python, not to be MATLAB® clones." [1]
SciPy's DCT is meant for multidimensional arrays. Array indexing begins at 0 in Python, just like it does in many other languages. So, it's only natural that they'd count axis numbers that way too.
> do I really want to go through all this every time I want to accomplish a simple task?
Entirely your choice. Your choice is not a reflection on the quality of the product.
SciPy's DCT is meant for multidimensional arrays. Array indexing begins at 0 in Python, just like it does in many other languages. So, it's only natural that they'd count axis numbers that way too.
> do I really want to go through all this every time I want to accomplish a simple task?
Entirely your choice. Your choice is not a reflection on the quality of the product.
[1] http://wiki.scipy.org/NumPy_for_Matlab_Users