4 ms·

Let's not forget to give at least some credit to Perl Data Langauge (PDL). It pioneered a lot of these ideas 10 years before NumPy existed, and is still a prett

Let's not forget to give at least some credit to Perl Data Langauge (PDL). It pioneered a lot of these ideas 10 years before NumPy existed, and is still a pretty great tool today: http://pdl.perl.org/index.php?page=FirstSteps http://pdl.perl.org/index.php?page=FirstSteps

ihnorton 6y ago
NumPy’s direct predecessor Numeric was released in 1995.
- beagle3 6y ago
  ... and then in 2001 or so, numarray came about and was supposed to be better - but instead it sort of split the community and wasted resources. Then Travis started Numpy which somehow magically was backward compatible with both numeric and numarray - and managed to get the community united again.
- hoytech 6y ago
  I didn't know that, thanks! It looks like these ideas were being tried in perl and python roughly in parallel.
mjburgess 6y ago
Er... array programming and statistical programming languages pre-date both by decades. APL from 1966, I believe, is the key lang for array programming. And statistical languages like S from 1976 come to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_(programming_language) At a quick glance, it seems PDL is just a variation on S.
- ktpsns 6y ago
  R (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(programming_language) ) is kind of the successof of S. In certain communities (not only statistics, but for instance also biogenetics), there is quite some concurrency between R and (scientific) Python for data science. For my understanding, the numpy syntax most closely resembles what would be possible in matlab. And matlab again seems to have roots from Fortran. Thanks to that, young folks nowadays can switch so easily between Fortran and Numpy, the syntax and call structures can easily be made to almost fit to each other.
  - uryga 6y ago
    > there is quite some concurrency i think you meant "competition" here :) (in polish, my native language, it's "konkurencja", but it's a "false friend of the translator"; i'm guessing you're in a similar boat)
    - yqx 6y ago
      Similar false friends in Dutch: Concurrentie
      - jefft255 6y ago
        Or French : concurrence :D
- hoytech 6y ago
  I was referring to wrapping typed arrays in "normal" scripting languages, allowing integration with a larger eco-system, which is I believe why NumPy is more commonly used today than APL.

ihnorton 6y ago

NumPy’s direct predecessor Numeric was released in 1995.

beagle3 6y ago
... and then in 2001 or so, numarray came about and was supposed to be better - but instead it sort of split the community and wasted resources. Then Travis started Numpy which somehow magically was backward compatible with both numeric and numarray - and managed to get the community united again.
hoytech 6y ago
I didn't know that, thanks! It looks like these ideas were being tried in perl and python roughly in parallel.

mjburgess 6y ago

Er... array programming and statistical programming languages pre-date both by decades. APL from 1966, I believe, is the key lang for array programming. And statistical languages like S from 1976 come to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_(programming_language) At a quick glance, it seems PDL is just a variation on S.

ktpsns 6y ago
R (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(programming_language) ) is kind of the successof of S. In certain communities (not only statistics, but for instance also biogenetics), there is quite some concurrency between R and (scientific) Python for data science. For my understanding, the numpy syntax most closely resembles what would be possible in matlab. And matlab again seems to have roots from Fortran. Thanks to that, young folks nowadays can switch so easily between Fortran and Numpy, the syntax and call structures can easily be made to almost fit to each other.
- uryga 6y ago
  > there is quite some concurrency i think you meant "competition" here :) (in polish, my native language, it's "konkurencja", but it's a "false friend of the translator"; i'm guessing you're in a similar boat)
  - yqx 6y ago
    Similar false friends in Dutch: Concurrentie
    - jefft255 6y ago
      Or French : concurrence :D
hoytech 6y ago
I was referring to wrapping typed arrays in "normal" scripting languages, allowing integration with a larger eco-system, which is I believe why NumPy is more commonly used today than APL.