12 ms·

isn't julia just another brand-name (™,®, and ©) python? like anaconda? or possibly the R language???

frakt0x90 2y ago
Not at all? Totally different programming paradigm and performance. Certain communities pull towards Julia a lot more than others. Mostly I've seen scientific fields that require HPC but don't want to do everything in FORTRAN and C. Paging Chris Rackauckas!
ForHackernews 2y ago
No. It's not.
jordanb 2y ago
R is an open source version of S, which was a competitor to SAS. Julia, from when I looked at it years ago was trying like a new version of Matlab or Mathematica. It was very linear-algebra focused, and were trying to replace those packages plus Fortran. They had some gimmicks like an IDE that would render mathematical notion like TeX for your matrices. Python wasn't the obvious "Fortran killer" scientific language it is today. In fact it's arguably really weird that Python ended up winning that segment. In any case, I think Julia's been struggling since its inception.
- bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
  [flagged]
- tomrod 2y ago
  I was in Austin while Travis Oliphant's wave from numpy led to Anaconda. After that we got to bring them in as consultants. It was wild talking to the team and hearing the inside-track dev info. It isn't a surprise to me that Python, as flexible and glue code as it is, became the Excel language of Scientific Computing.
  - nequo 2y ago
    What kinds of things did you hear from them?
    - tomrod 2y ago
      Mostly the vision and ideals which became Anaconda, conda, and miniconda, as well as the translation of ideas to use cases to implementations, and some ideas that came about later in other forms or libraries (numba, pytorch). Basically a mini/beta/in-progress version of Pycon each week.
- wdkrnls 2y ago
  R and S are also very linear algebra focused. R developers just try to make C++ behave like R as much as possible when they need more speed. Hence, Rcpp. Otherwise, we prefer our LISPy paradise.
minetest2048 2y ago
Julia feels like a Matlab++ with its one based indexing and `function end` syntax Mojo is what you're thinking of
- ls612 2y ago
  I primarily use MATLAB and what stops me from using Julia is the package management. Also the VSCode extension has weird performance problems when trying to debug Julia code.
  - adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
    > what stops me from using Julia is the package management. Can you expand on this? Julia's package manager IMO is one of the best parts of the language.
    - ls612 2y ago
      I hate with a burning passion having to manage packages myself. MATLAB comes preinstalled with everything and the kitchen sink.
      - adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
        Fair enough. It probably would make sense to have a Conda like release of Julia that comes out every year with a broad but curated selection of packages.
        stillyslalom 2y ago
        Long ago, I trawled through Matlab's docs to come up with a set of Julia packages matching what's build into Matlab: https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-matlab-users-club/12872/8 https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-matlab-users-clu... I don't think you'd actually want to include each of those packages in a standard distro: does the average user really need to programmatically send emails or deal with Voronoi tessellations? Probably not, but I still think there's value in a batteries-included approach, especially when working with students.

Not at all? Totally different programming paradigm and performance. Certain communities pull towards Julia a lot more than others. Mostly I've seen scientific fields that require HPC but don't want to do everything in FORTRAN and C. Paging Chris Rackauckas!

ForHackernews 2y ago

No. It's not.

jordanb 2y ago

R is an open source version of S, which was a competitor to SAS. Julia, from when I looked at it years ago was trying like a new version of Matlab or Mathematica. It was very linear-algebra focused, and were trying to replace those packages plus Fortran. They had some gimmicks like an IDE that would render mathematical notion like TeX for your matrices. Python wasn't the obvious "Fortran killer" scientific language it is today. In fact it's arguably really weird that Python ended up winning that segment. In any case, I think Julia's been struggling since its inception.

bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
[flagged]
tomrod 2y ago
I was in Austin while Travis Oliphant's wave from numpy led to Anaconda. After that we got to bring them in as consultants. It was wild talking to the team and hearing the inside-track dev info. It isn't a surprise to me that Python, as flexible and glue code as it is, became the Excel language of Scientific Computing.
- nequo 2y ago
  What kinds of things did you hear from them?
  - tomrod 2y ago
    Mostly the vision and ideals which became Anaconda, conda, and miniconda, as well as the translation of ideas to use cases to implementations, and some ideas that came about later in other forms or libraries (numba, pytorch). Basically a mini/beta/in-progress version of Pycon each week.
wdkrnls 2y ago
R and S are also very linear algebra focused. R developers just try to make C++ behave like R as much as possible when they need more speed. Hence, Rcpp. Otherwise, we prefer our LISPy paradise.

minetest2048 2y ago

Julia feels like a Matlab++ with its one based indexing and `function end` syntax Mojo is what you're thinking of

ls612 2y ago
I primarily use MATLAB and what stops me from using Julia is the package management. Also the VSCode extension has weird performance problems when trying to debug Julia code.
- adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
  > what stops me from using Julia is the package management. Can you expand on this? Julia's package manager IMO is one of the best parts of the language.
  - ls612 2y ago
    I hate with a burning passion having to manage packages myself. MATLAB comes preinstalled with everything and the kitchen sink.
    - adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
      Fair enough. It probably would make sense to have a Conda like release of Julia that comes out every year with a broad but curated selection of packages.
      - stillyslalom 2y ago
        Long ago, I trawled through Matlab's docs to come up with a set of Julia packages matching what's build into Matlab: https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-matlab-users-club/12872/8 https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-matlab-users-clu... I don't think you'd actually want to include each of those packages in a standard distro: does the average user really need to programmatically send emails or deal with Voronoi tessellations? Probably not, but I still think there's value in a batteries-included approach, especially when working with students.