Re: [Vala] Operator overloading (SOC idea)

[Conrad Steenberg <conrad steenberg caltech edu>]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the response.

I've used Python + numerical/numpy in various guises since 1996, and
it's great for many things, especially compared to the sluggishness of
Matlab.

A lot of our code needs a little (OK a lot) more speed in the "glue"
parts that usually gets handled by Python, so I end up having to write
Python extensions in C or Pyrex to speed things up. I guess that you
could say that the "organizational" parts of the code is becoming the
bottleneck.

So the get this back on-topic: having support for arrays/matrices with
easy to read operators would allow the use of only one language that is
both fast and productive, especially using the Genie syntax.

Anybody wants to add array and matrix types to Vala as a Google Summer
of Code project? :-)

Cheers,
Conrad


On Wed, 2009-03-25 at 17:40 -0600, Michael Torrie wrote:
> Conrad Steenberg wrote:
> > FWIW I would really like to see this implemented as I write scientific
> > code every day and would love to use Vala/Genie instead of C++ :-)
>
> This is OT, but most of the scientists around here (at my university)
> have all switched away from Fortran and C++ to Python.  They use fast
> numeric libraries like scipy, numpy, matlibplot, and other tools.  In
> fact a few have replaced MatLab with Python with great success.  Python
> may be more appropriate for your use than Vala, in this specific case,
> if you feel inclined.
>
> I personally see Vala as a tool to develop and enhance GTK and other
> Gnome-based libraries mainly.  In fact I could see future versions of
> GTK being written mostly in Vala.  I know that several folks on this
> list are using Vala as a main language, though.
>
> I wonder how easy it would be to write python extension modules using
> Vala.
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conrad D. Steenberg Ph.D.            conrad steenberg caltech edu
Scientific Software Engineer         http://clarens.caltech.edu
Pierce Bio-Engineering Lab           Mail Code 114-96
California Institute of Technology   Pasadena, CA, 91125