5 ms·

Hakaru – Probabilistic Programming

104 points by avindroth 10y ago

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
eggy 10y ago
I was very interested to try it out, but it requires a licensed version of Maple.
- diab0lic 10y ago
  I haven't run it yet as I am travelling, so this is speculation based on my interpretation of the eocs. The documentation seems to suggest that some optimizations are implemented using maple and that the software could be run without it albeit without those optimizations.
- cf 10y ago
  It doesn't require a Maple license exactly. Maple is just needed to use the simplifier. It is perfectly possible to write and run Hakaru programs without having Maple installed.
  - eggy 10y ago
    Thanks for pointing that out. I'll try it. I'll find out what "computer-algebra guided optimizations" are I'm sure ;)
calebm 10y ago
How does it compare to PyMC?
- cf 10y ago
  I think PyMC is a much more mature solution. Also while PyMC is much more focused on sampling, Hakaru is more focused on Bayesian inference and trying to represent stochastic models in a way such that any inference algorithm could be applied to it.
  - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
    Why does it look like Python all of a sudden? What happened to embedding probabilistic programming in Haskell?
    - cf 10y ago
      That's the concrete syntax for the language. It was chosen to be make the language more familiar to people who do machine learning in Python. The embedded design we had made it very challenging to develop new inference algorithms and to combine them. You can still find that version of hakaru at https://github.com/zaxtax/hakaru-old https://github.com/zaxtax/hakaru-old
      - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
        And here I actually used the old Hakaru. What would be the problems in porting it to more recent Base libraries and GHC versions?
        cf 10y ago
        I expect no significant challenges in porting to more recent version of GHC. Some version bounds will need to be loosened and an Applicative instance added for the Measure monads. Also if you have any feature requests for that version I'd be curious what they were.
wcbeard10 10y ago
I occasionally use probabilistic programming systems, and find this project fascinating, but I've been wondering for a while what the vision is. Is it meant mainly as a research project/proof of concept (seems I've seen elsewhere that it's funded by the DARPA PPAML project), or is it intended to become a commonly used piece of software with a community like pymc3 and stan?
- ccshan 10y ago
  A good way to see the vision of Hakaru may be to search for "2016" on my Web page http://homes.soic.indiana.edu/ccshan/ http://homes.soic.indiana.edu/ccshan/ Whether it is intended to become a commonly used piece of software depends on what you mean by "become" :)
- probinso 10y ago
  The PPAML project yielded a lot of cool work, I think that many people are still figuring out the most impact use case. I believe that the most mature new production language is Figaro, out of Charles River. They have some good example projects and a introductory text for their language. https://www.cra.com/technical-expertise/probabilistic-modelingprogramming https://www.cra.com/technical-expertise/probabilistic-modeli... https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Probabilistic-Programming-Avi-Pfeffer/dp/1617292338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473442874&sr=8-1&keywords=figaro+probabilistic+programming https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Probabilistic-Programming-A... That being said, I'm very happy that Hakaru is getting attention.

104 points by avindroth 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

eggy 10y ago

I was very interested to try it out, but it requires a licensed version of Maple.

diab0lic 10y ago
I haven't run it yet as I am travelling, so this is speculation based on my interpretation of the eocs. The documentation seems to suggest that some optimizations are implemented using maple and that the software could be run without it albeit without those optimizations.
cf 10y ago
It doesn't require a Maple license exactly. Maple is just needed to use the simplifier. It is perfectly possible to write and run Hakaru programs without having Maple installed.
- eggy 10y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out. I'll try it. I'll find out what "computer-algebra guided optimizations" are I'm sure ;)

calebm 10y ago

How does it compare to PyMC?

cf 10y ago
I think PyMC is a much more mature solution. Also while PyMC is much more focused on sampling, Hakaru is more focused on Bayesian inference and trying to represent stochastic models in a way such that any inference algorithm could be applied to it.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago
  Why does it look like Python all of a sudden? What happened to embedding probabilistic programming in Haskell?
  - cf 10y ago
    That's the concrete syntax for the language. It was chosen to be make the language more familiar to people who do machine learning in Python. The embedded design we had made it very challenging to develop new inference algorithms and to combine them. You can still find that version of hakaru at https://github.com/zaxtax/hakaru-old https://github.com/zaxtax/hakaru-old
    - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
      And here I actually used the old Hakaru. What would be the problems in porting it to more recent Base libraries and GHC versions?
      - cf 10y ago
        I expect no significant challenges in porting to more recent version of GHC. Some version bounds will need to be loosened and an Applicative instance added for the Measure monads. Also if you have any feature requests for that version I'd be curious what they were.

wcbeard10 10y ago

I occasionally use probabilistic programming systems, and find this project fascinating, but I've been wondering for a while what the vision is. Is it meant mainly as a research project/proof of concept (seems I've seen elsewhere that it's funded by the DARPA PPAML project), or is it intended to become a commonly used piece of software with a community like pymc3 and stan?

ccshan 10y ago
A good way to see the vision of Hakaru may be to search for "2016" on my Web page http://homes.soic.indiana.edu/ccshan/ http://homes.soic.indiana.edu/ccshan/ Whether it is intended to become a commonly used piece of software depends on what you mean by "become" :)
probinso 10y ago
The PPAML project yielded a lot of cool work, I think that many people are still figuring out the most impact use case. I believe that the most mature new production language is Figaro, out of Charles River. They have some good example projects and a introductory text for their language. https://www.cra.com/technical-expertise/probabilistic-modelingprogramming https://www.cra.com/technical-expertise/probabilistic-modeli... https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Probabilistic-Programming-Avi-Pfeffer/dp/1617292338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473442874&sr=8-1&keywords=figaro+probabilistic+programming https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Probabilistic-Programming-A... That being said, I'm very happy that Hakaru is getting attention.