I find it amusing that mathematicians are being told that
a math-specific language is a liability. Mathematics is,
after all, a specialized language that took me years to
learn.
In any problem you wish to solve with a program there is always
an impedance mismatch (like hooking a soda straw to a firehose).
You can choose a language close to the machine (e.g assembler)
and "port" your problem across the chasm. Or you can choose a
language close to the problem (e.g. APL) and let the machine do
the "port" across the chasm. Python is somewhere in the middle
where mathematics is concerned.
Python is a poor match for the machine (interpreted) and it is a
poor match for the mathematics (needing lots of supporting
superstructure the user needs to learn).
As a pragmatic choice for design-by-accretion it is excellent.
But as a selling point for developing mathematics I'm somewhat
more skeptical.
What is the ultimate purpose of Sage (beyond competition)?
Is it a platform for doing computational mathematics?
If so, why wouldn't I want a language close to my problem,
that is, a language that directly supports well-founded
mathematics? And what can that possibly have to do with Python?
Python is the glue. Who chooses a workbench based on the glue?
Tim Daly
On 11/13/2010 10:13 AM, rjf wrote:
On Nov 13, 6:32 am, "Johan S. R. Nielsen"<j.s.r.niel...@mat.dtu.dk>
wrote:
two info boxes on this suggested "Why Sage"-page.
I don't think that Python is the perfect language to write mathematics
software with; I would definitely vote on a much more functional
language here, e.g. OCaml or maybe even Haskell. However, this would
cut out so many potential developers,
... yada yada...
excessive boosterism.
Consider that symbolic software systems like Maxima/Macsyma, Reduce,
Axiom, Jacal ...
were written in Lisp,
and that Mathematica and Maple were written in C dialects...
and even YOU would prefer a different, more functional language.
And then you say Python is still better.
Certainly not for writing math software. Maybe for writing web
applications?
Because it has a coherent syntax???? Compared to Lisp or Haskell or
OCaml?
Because people who know little mathematics and little about
programming
can write/alter/debug applications for SAGE??? About which they
presumably know
nothing? And this is because Python is such a winner?
And of course so much of SAGE is not even in Python, but C, Fortran, C+
+, Lisp, whatever,
that even that is nonsense.
excessive boosterism.
At best, you might say, some features of Sage can be augmented by
writing in Python, and
the user interface looks like Python (actually it is not, but has to
be pre-processed).
RJF
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