Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Mark H Harris Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: Fortran (Was: The "does Python have variables?" debate) Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 00:55:06 -0500 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 29 Message-ID: <5371B3BA.1050600@gmail.com> References: <87tx91warf.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net> <85eh05cdjx.fsf@benfinney.id.au> <87ha50hagu.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net> <536b8411$0$29965$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <536b9308$0$29965$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <536bab23$0$29965$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <87mweotfe5.fsf@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr> <87iopbtmh1.fsf@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr> <5371b23a$0$11109$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: RbLuqvdjwUNhJiyJQaji5Q.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.5.0 X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:71432 On 5/13/14 12:48 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Tue, 13 May 2014 00:33:47 -0500, Mark H Harris wrote: > >> there has to be a value add for scientists to move away from R or >> Matlab, or from FORTRAN. Why go to the trouble? FORTRAN works well (its >> fast too), and there are zillions of lines of code cranking away on huge >> linear arrays. Enter Julia... over the next ten years; seriously. >> Because of the value adds! >> >> Why?, glad you asked. Enter self modifying code for one. > > Self-modifying code is a nightmare inside the head of a Lovecraftian > horror. There's a reason why almost the only people still using self- > modifying code are virus writers, and the viruses they create are > notorious for being buggy. > > no, no, no... Steven don't think self-modifying (sorry I even used it) think meta-programming. Python accomplishes this kind of thing using Class and function decorations (sort-uv). Take a look at the video presentation of the concept before you turn it into a Friday the Thirteenth virus writing horror flick... its going to be as powerful as lisp was supposed to be with the user friendliness of python-like code-ability but 'without' the forced indentation rule (Julia uses 'ends' and white-space means nothing). marcus