comp.lang.ruby

john casu

3/10/2006 9:10:00 AM

mtobis@gmail.com wrote:
: There's already an open source competitior to matlab: python plus
: matplotlib , sometimes known as pylab.

with all due respect, aren't the open source competitors to matlab,
Octave and Scilab? Given that one cannot run .m files in pylab,
shouldn't it really be considered more an alternative to matlab ?

: Sigh. It's really unfortunate that the Ruby/Python contention has
: leaked into science. I had thought Python was sufficiently ahead in
: terms of available libraries that it wouldn't come up, but maybe not.
: (I would think that f2py alone was decisive.)

I don't think that this is unfortunate. If one is prepared to be open
to other points of view, then it's a very real and valid discussion, given
a) the propensity for language invention in the hpc and sci/eng spaces; and
b) the need to drive rapid applications development in the HPC & Sci/Eng spaces.

I have a saying: "There are no classic rock and roll songs in Chinese".
What this means is that despite being the most widely spoken language by headcount,
the fact that no-one has yet written a good rock and roll song in chinese shows
that language is hugely important.
This is especially true, imho, for software development.

Having worked with Scipy/Numpy/Numeric etc.., and abandoned them in favor of Ruby,
it's my opinion that Python's advantages in this field are not as pronounced as
the advocates of those packages would have you believe, and infact in some cases,
there are some significant issues.

The one important exception: the community of scientific Python programmers is
much bigger and more vocal and proselytising than the same Ruby community. And
that means a lot. As does the fact that the Python community as a whole is far
more driven to fully document their works in english than the Ruby community is.

: However, the issues Bill raises are very much the right ones, and we
: should agree that these languages can be used in combination with very
: large computing resources to open up new and better ways to do
: scientific programming.

: Michael Tobis
: http://geosci.uchicago....