3 ms·

Swift: Scripting Language for Many-Task Computing

50 points by turnersr 14y ago

gringomorcego 14y ago
I started seizing a bit when I looked at the example code. I'm sure it's awesome, but friggin come on. There's more to life than algol 2.0.
- turnersr 14y ago
  Swift is an amazingly powerful framework. The syntax for its scripting language takes some getting use to. If you think that's bad, try reading the Java that's underlying it.
- ketralnis 14y ago
  Getting upset over curly braces doesn't help anyone. We have so many languages that follow Algol's example because they work. It's a metaphor that works for us.
- reitzensteinm 14y ago
  Could anyone who's got knowledge of the environment explain why a new language was required - what couldn't have been done as a library for an existing language?
  - turnersr 14y ago
    If you're interested in a Python implementation of some of the core ideas of Swift (task-based parallelism, DAG representation of work-flow, etc..) look here: https://github.com/timarmstrong/pydflow https://github.com/timarmstrong/pydflow A discussion of the Swift language can be found here: http://www.ci.uchicago.edu/swift/papers/SwiftLanguageForDistributedParallelScripting.pdf http://www.ci.uchicago.edu/swift/papers/SwiftLanguageForDist...
  - HerrMonnezza 14y ago
    GC3Pie is a Python library for running many-task workflows (not just DAGs): http://gc3pie.googlecode.com/ http://gc3pie.googlecode.com/ Currently, it is mainly targeted at grid/cluster computing but it's evolving. (Disclaimer: developer here.)
  - pbui 14y ago
    A new language isn't required. For part of my dissertation, I wrote a DSL on top of Python called Weaver (http://bitbucket.org/pbui/weaver http://bitbucket.org/pbui/weaver) that compiles workflow DAGs that are executed by Makeflow (http://cse.nd.edu/~ccl/software/makeflow http://cse.nd.edu/~ccl/software/makeflow) on a variety of distributed systems (e.g. Condor, SGE, WorkQueue, multi-core).
  - saraid216 14y ago
    A friend of mine is finishing up his compilers class and keeps randomly wanting to write new languages because he can. It would not surprise me to learn a similar effect is ...in ..effect... goddammit my diction sucks today.
zmmmmm 14y ago
Reminds me a bit of Bpipe (http://bpipe.org http://bpipe.org), and Ruffus (http://code.google.com/p/ruffus/ http://code.google.com/p/ruffus/) ... though perhaps more mature? But the syntax is a bit more obtuse when you actually look at the examples (not that I mind learning it if the payoff is sufficient). I think we'll see a lot of DSL style / scripting languages like this pop up as big data computing becomes more mainstream and people try to make parallelism easier to grok.
erikb 14y ago
It's funny that most people (me, too) don't like the syntax. I think the problem is that Swift sells itself as a scripting language and scripting languages are often very easy to read like Bash, Ruby or Python. Well, maybe if I see it again in the future, I'll try to code something in it.
damiongrimfield 14y ago
does this qualify as a name collision with the php email library swift mailer? http://swiftmailer.org/ http://swiftmailer.org/
- hemancuso 14y ago
  Also: Openstack Swift (S3-like object store)
- gtani 14y ago
  Kind of like there's Sphinx fulltext indexing and Sphinx doc generation lib for python and CMU's sphinx speech recognition/generation framework, you have to specify which but google seems ok with them.

50 points by turnersr 14y ago

I started seizing a bit when I looked at the example code. I'm sure it's awesome, but friggin come on. There's more to life than algol 2.0.

turnersr 14y ago
Swift is an amazingly powerful framework. The syntax for its scripting language takes some getting use to. If you think that's bad, try reading the Java that's underlying it.
ketralnis 14y ago
Getting upset over curly braces doesn't help anyone. We have so many languages that follow Algol's example because they work. It's a metaphor that works for us.
reitzensteinm 14y ago
Could anyone who's got knowledge of the environment explain why a new language was required - what couldn't have been done as a library for an existing language?
- turnersr 14y ago
  If you're interested in a Python implementation of some of the core ideas of Swift (task-based parallelism, DAG representation of work-flow, etc..) look here: https://github.com/timarmstrong/pydflow https://github.com/timarmstrong/pydflow A discussion of the Swift language can be found here: http://www.ci.uchicago.edu/swift/papers/SwiftLanguageForDistributedParallelScripting.pdf http://www.ci.uchicago.edu/swift/papers/SwiftLanguageForDist...
- HerrMonnezza 14y ago
  GC3Pie is a Python library for running many-task workflows (not just DAGs): http://gc3pie.googlecode.com/ http://gc3pie.googlecode.com/ Currently, it is mainly targeted at grid/cluster computing but it's evolving. (Disclaimer: developer here.)
- pbui 14y ago
  A new language isn't required. For part of my dissertation, I wrote a DSL on top of Python called Weaver (http://bitbucket.org/pbui/weaver http://bitbucket.org/pbui/weaver) that compiles workflow DAGs that are executed by Makeflow (http://cse.nd.edu/~ccl/software/makeflow http://cse.nd.edu/~ccl/software/makeflow) on a variety of distributed systems (e.g. Condor, SGE, WorkQueue, multi-core).
- saraid216 14y ago
  A friend of mine is finishing up his compilers class and keeps randomly wanting to write new languages because he can. It would not surprise me to learn a similar effect is ...in ..effect... goddammit my diction sucks today.

zmmmmm 14y ago

Reminds me a bit of Bpipe (http://bpipe.org http://bpipe.org), and Ruffus (http://code.google.com/p/ruffus/ http://code.google.com/p/ruffus/) ... though perhaps more mature? But the syntax is a bit more obtuse when you actually look at the examples (not that I mind learning it if the payoff is sufficient). I think we'll see a lot of DSL style / scripting languages like this pop up as big data computing becomes more mainstream and people try to make parallelism easier to grok.

erikb 14y ago

It's funny that most people (me, too) don't like the syntax. I think the problem is that Swift sells itself as a scripting language and scripting languages are often very easy to read like Bash, Ruby or Python. Well, maybe if I see it again in the future, I'll try to code something in it.

damiongrimfield 14y ago

does this qualify as a name collision with the php email library swift mailer? http://swiftmailer.org/ http://swiftmailer.org/

hemancuso 14y ago
Also: Openstack Swift (S3-like object store)
gtani 14y ago
Kind of like there's Sphinx fulltext indexing and Sphinx doc generation lib for python and CMU's sphinx speech recognition/generation framework, you have to specify which but google seems ok with them.