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Posts like this really make me want to move to Clojure. Python is now my go-to language, especially because of Scipy, NetworkX and bridges like RPy. I would d

by wynand 16y ago

Posts like this really make me want to move to Clojure. Python is now my go-to language, especially because of Scipy, NetworkX and bridges like RPy. I would definitely put in the time if someone with mathematical modelling experience can support the idea that I'll be more productive in Clojure. Anyone? I really would love to see a list of testimonials and anti-testimonials of people from various fields that switched to Clojure and either got much more done or got burned. Sorry, I realise that this is a wee bit off the main topic.

icey 16y ago
You should spend a little time playing with Clojure. I don't know if you'll be more productive in it or not; people seem to either prefer lisps strongly or dislike them strongly. If you like lisp then you'll have no problems being tremendously productive, especially with libraries like Incanter available.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  I very much like the elegance of lisp code, but I'm still a 'reader', not a 'writer'. I hope to change that one of these days, but as long as that magic 'click' hasn't happened I'm not confident enough to jump in and start some major project. Maybe that's what I should lose, the paralysis of starting out down the wrong track and simply do stuff wrong until I find a better way.
  - icey 16y ago
    One of the charms of lisp is that it makes it easy to change your mind. It is really well suited to iterative development; even if part of your iteration process consists of getting things wrong.
  - joubert 16y ago
    Practice
- corruption 16y ago
  Do note, python has much better support for a huge variety of modelling techniques. I looked at incanter and it's obvious that it's in it's infancy c.f. R or numpy/scipy and associated libraries. At the moment my vote would be for python or clojure + r.
  - dpritchett 16y ago
    Have you taken a look at rincanter? It claims to be a Clojure+R wrapper that should help you out: http://github.com/jolby/rincanter http://github.com/jolby/rincanter
jwr 16y ago
FWIW, we're doing lots of math with Clojure in a startup. Mostly using Incanter and Clojuratica as a bridge to Mathematica. So far the experience has been great. Apart from the language being really well designed, there is the wealth of java libraries accessible just by adding a single line to your project.clj. And there is Clojure support for parallel programming — there is nothing like spending all of 5 seconds on making one of your hotspots use 16 cores just by adding a 'p' in front of 'map'. All in all, so far it has been a great experience. There were amazingly few bugs and problems.

by wynand 16y ago

icey 16y ago

You should spend a little time playing with Clojure. I don't know if you'll be more productive in it or not; people seem to either prefer lisps strongly or dislike them strongly. If you like lisp then you'll have no problems being tremendously productive, especially with libraries like Incanter available.

jacquesm 16y ago
I very much like the elegance of lisp code, but I'm still a 'reader', not a 'writer'. I hope to change that one of these days, but as long as that magic 'click' hasn't happened I'm not confident enough to jump in and start some major project. Maybe that's what I should lose, the paralysis of starting out down the wrong track and simply do stuff wrong until I find a better way.
- icey 16y ago
  One of the charms of lisp is that it makes it easy to change your mind. It is really well suited to iterative development; even if part of your iteration process consists of getting things wrong.
- joubert 16y ago
  Practice
corruption 16y ago
Do note, python has much better support for a huge variety of modelling techniques. I looked at incanter and it's obvious that it's in it's infancy c.f. R or numpy/scipy and associated libraries. At the moment my vote would be for python or clojure + r.
- dpritchett 16y ago
  Have you taken a look at rincanter? It claims to be a Clojure+R wrapper that should help you out: http://github.com/jolby/rincanter http://github.com/jolby/rincanter

jwr 16y ago

FWIW, we're doing lots of math with Clojure in a startup. Mostly using Incanter and Clojuratica as a bridge to Mathematica. So far the experience has been great. Apart from the language being really well designed, there is the wealth of java libraries accessible just by adding a single line to your project.clj. And there is Clojure support for parallel programming — there is nothing like spending all of 5 seconds on making one of your hotspots use 16 cores just by adding a 'p' in front of 'map'. All in all, so far it has been a great experience. There were amazingly few bugs and problems.