Julia is a young language. This comes with a lot of benefits - for example, it's possible to do things *right* from the start. We're currently in a phase where there is a multitude of possible solutions to every problem that arises, and we honestly don't know which solution proves to be the best one. Testing various solutions out in packages, outside of the base distribution, where they can compete for popularity, and keep building on top of each-other until we reach something which we believe not only is adequate, but *really* hits the sweet spot. In other words: sure, formatting numeric output is fundamental, but it's a problem with a large solution space, and we don't want to lock in on one path yet.
But Julia's young age also means that there are lots of problems that aren't really solved yet, or that have solutions proposed but not implemented, etc. For the future, there are plans to include some packages (which ones have not been decided, or AFAIK really even discussed) in a sort-of "base distribution", so they will be installed upon installation of Julia, and available with a single `using` statement. But the infrastructure for this is not in place yet, and even if it were, there would still be lots of reasons not to make a final decision on which packages make the cut until we approach a 1.0 release of the language. So yeah, it might seem silly to have to install a package just to get fine-grained control of numeric output formatting, but, at least for now, that's part of what one could call Julia's "Package Deal" ;) // T On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 9:43:05 AM UTC+2, Ferran Mazzanti wrote: > > Thanks, that seems to work. > Still it amazes me how Julia, being a language made for numerical > calculations, does not natively support a simple mechanism to print/write > large bunches of numbers. I've been in the numerical world for 20+ years > and I know printing lots of numbers is something you get on a daily > basis. I know now the formatting package can help on that (thanks :), what > I do not like is the idea of having to install every time a new package > to get added functionality. I understand there are things that have to go > to external packages because of its limited or specialized use, but > come on... printing number os definitely not one of those. > Just my 2cents :) > > On Monday, September 21, 2015 at 10:52:52 AM UTC+2, Michael Hatherly wrote: >> >> https://github.com/JuliaLang/Formatting.jl might help. >> >> — Mike >> >> On Monday, 21 September 2015 10:46:31 UTC+2, Ferran Mazzanti wrote: >>> >>> Dear all, >>> >>> I could use some help here, because I can't believe I'm not able to >>> easily print formatted numbers under Julia in a easy way. What I try to do >>> is to write a function that, given a vector, prints all its components with >>> a user-defined format. I was trying something of the form >>> >>> function Print_Vec(aux_VEC,form_VEC) >>> form_VEC :: ASCIIString >>> str_VEC = "%16.8f" >>> for elem_VEC in aux_VEC >>> str_VEC += @sprintf(form_VEC,elem_VEC) >>> end >>> return str_VEC >>> end >>> >>> However, that doesn't work because it looks like the first argument in >>> @sprintf must be a explicit string, and not a variable. >>> Is there anything I can do with that? >>> >>> Thanks a lot for your help. >>> >>
