On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 11:09 PM, c s <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 4:21 AM, Douglas Bates wrote: >> These comments may provoke a heated response from Conrad but, >> if so, I don't plan to respond further. Eigen and Armadillo are different >> approaches, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. > > I'm actually in favour of heterogeneous solutions and support the use > of C++ for performance critical implementations. > > Relying on only one solution (ie. homogeneity) is bad from a > "survival" point of view, due to very similar reasons as in the > biological world: a fault can affect the entire population, or a virus > can propagate itself quite easily and do lots of nasty things. For > example, see the recent snafu with state-sponsored viruses attacking > Windoze installations, ie, Stuxnet and Flame: > http://www.h-online.com/security/features/FAQ-Flame-the-super-spy-1587063.html > > In my view, the C++ brethren Armadillo and Eigen are not really up > against each other, but against Matlab. Matlab is like crack or > crystal meth. Highly addictive, but in the end bad for you. > Mathworks, the company that produces Matlab, hooks people in while > they are university students. It provides low prices to educational > institutions, and charges through the roof for everyone else. > Students become graduates, which are then employed by the companies > that are in effect stuck with using Matlab. This is a strategy known > as vendor lock-in, exploited by monopolists. Other descriptions > consistent with the business model of Mathworks are "parasite" and > "leech".
I completely and happily agree. > One way of keeping Mathworks in check is to provide alternative > solutions that have similar functionality (eg. easy visualisation of > data and rapid prototyping). One of them in GNU Octave, which really > needs a JIT compiler to effectively compete with Matlab.. Another is > R. I believe R currently doesn't have a JIT compiler (I haven't > checked lately), and hence the very useful Rcpp fills in the > performance gap. The recently-developed Julia language (JuliaLang.org) has a JIT and a syntax that is familiar to Matlab and R users. It is still very much a work in progress but shows great promise. > One also has to address the current reality that people still overly > rely on Matlab, and have the problem of converting their Matlab code > into production environments / products. This is where C++ comes in, > and libraries such as Armadillo (with its Matlab-like syntax) can be > quite handy. _______________________________________________ Rcpp-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.r-forge.r-project.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rcpp-devel
