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Not getting something so basic correct tells me to avoid the whole thing for fear of getting subtly screwed by some other oversight. No one denies that this is

Not getting something so basic correct tells me to avoid the whole thing for fear of getting subtly screwed by some other oversight. No one denies that this is a problem, and it will be fixed. But I disagree that it represents a fundamental flaw. For iterative development, it is a minor inconvenience, so other priorities have taken precedence. If you are redefining functions in this way in tested code, there may be bigger problems to worry about. The Julia developers have paid fastidious attention to correctness (to the point of making a pilgrimage to visit Kahan early on). The type system is well thought-out and nice to use. Spurious crashes are almost nonexistent (and fixed within hours, without fail). The foundation is solid, but it's still a work in progress, and it will take some time to shake these sorts of features out.

Stubb 13y ago
I was cheering out loud when I first downloaded Julia and started working with it. The type system, multiple dispatch, so much win! I'm working on ionospheric ray tracing at my day job and would love to use Julia. But when I can write a nine-line example that produces incorrect output—no thanks. Especially when one of the lead developers (see the linked thread) states that supporting function redefinition isn't needed for v1.0. Clearly these people are working under a very different set of priorities than me. "The foundation is solid"—I do not think it means what you think it means.
- coldtea 13y ago
  >Clearly these people are working under a very different set of priorities than me. Yes, they are pragmatists. Plus they know that the language is the first priority, not the REPL.
charlieflowers 13y ago
(to the point of making a pilgrimage to visit Kahan early on) What does that mean?
- ihnorton 13y ago
  "The Father of Floating Point" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kahan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kahan

Stubb 13y ago

I was cheering out loud when I first downloaded Julia and started working with it. The type system, multiple dispatch, so much win! I'm working on ionospheric ray tracing at my day job and would love to use Julia. But when I can write a nine-line example that produces incorrect output—no thanks. Especially when one of the lead developers (see the linked thread) states that supporting function redefinition isn't needed for v1.0. Clearly these people are working under a very different set of priorities than me. "The foundation is solid"—I do not think it means what you think it means.

coldtea 13y ago
>Clearly these people are working under a very different set of priorities than me. Yes, they are pragmatists. Plus they know that the language is the first priority, not the REPL.

charlieflowers 13y ago

(to the point of making a pilgrimage to visit Kahan early on) What does that mean?

ihnorton 13y ago
"The Father of Floating Point" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kahan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kahan