Re: Play with virtual machines (Was: Thoughts and Opinions...)

["chris.danx" <chris.danx@ntlworld.com>]

"Siegfried Gonzi" <siegfried.gonzi@kfunigraz.ac.at> wrote in message
news:3AE81234.267643AC@kfunigraz.ac.at...
> Jerzy Karczmarczuk wrote:
>
> > All this together permits to write a long piece of (say, Matlab) code
> > 10 times faster and shorter than the equivalent C code. Less bugs, and
> > because those operations are within the kernel, the execution speed
> > is very decent.
>
> [comp.lang.misc removed from the header]
>

[Stop removing groups.  Your getting on my nerves!  This is suppost to be an
open discussion.  So let's keep it that way.]

> That is correct. But there remains one problem: the written code is very hard
> to read. Sure the development time is reduced by an enormous amount. I cannot
> live without Yorick anymore (I can't pay the money which Yorick helped saving
> me), but reusing the code is the same dilema as with lets say C.
>
> > Array-oriented software will be always needed by physicists, engineers,
> > etc.
>
> That is really true. But there is another option: Fortran 90. Sure it is not
> "interactive" but it has some nice features handling arrays.
>
> > It is a pity that an array-oriented FUNCTIONAL language: Sisal
> > is dead. This is an ecological niche wide open.
>
> I know from a physicist at LLNL that Sisal had been the only "functional"
> language with the potential to compare in speed against Fortran. But nobody
> knows why they dropped Sisal.
>
>
> S. Gonzi
> [BTW: There is an IDL clone for Linux available, called "Ana". It is
> something like Matlab or Yorick but with strong emphasize on image
> processing. An IDL license costs in Europe nearly more than US$ 2000.-. So
> Ana might be a good proxy for IDL].
>
>