From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,a83584e000bc28fa X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Received: by 10.66.89.196 with SMTP id bq4mr1628164pab.26.1345355223129; Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:47:03 -0700 (PDT) Path: g9ni98834515pbo.0!nntp.google.com!npeer03.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: Ada novice Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: ada lapack Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:39:41 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <51bf0895-3e92-42e9-b99d-5bc03bd99d85@googlegroups.com> References: <12f929e9-eea3-4dc9-b10d-71e4f5732e0d@googlegroups.com> <615dd222-9c8b-4878-94f7-b1cd4792bd3e@googlegroups.com> <36bc4009-6240-4797-991c-b72ec290cedc@googlegroups.com> <12606f3f-aec1-489c-8325-18e13007b6a6@googlegroups.com> <11959826-e12e-4455-b9d9-1ac4dcaf2952@googlegroups.com> <3bdbf14a-52ff-4b72-9e7b-42b543538959@googlegroups.com> <5865849c-3897-4be5-8d54-1de2e1acc3a7@googlegroups.com> <781001a0-3a99-40ac-bc5b-c8337124b29b@googlegroups.com> <698e8722-4e47-4aff-836a-9ca36e6207bf@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 90.239.56.56 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Trace: posting.google.com 1345355222 8444 127.0.0.1 (19 Aug 2012 05:47:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 05:47:02 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <698e8722-4e47-4aff-836a-9ca36e6207bf@googlegroups.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=90.239.56.56; posting-account=Rr9I-QoAAACS-nOzpA-mGxtAlZ46Nb6I User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-Received-Bytes: 3655 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: 2012-08-18T22:39:41-07:00 List-Id: Think of Matlab. It uses lapack but I do not think that the lapack codes ar= e written in the Matlab language. A higher function like "eig" in Matlab is= calling the necessary lapack routine and this part is invisible to the use= r. But after calling "eig", the user can do whatever operation he/she wants= on the eigenvectors. This is the reason why Matlab sells and we have free = software like scilab and octave which can also do similar things. If after getting the eigenvalues from the above software one would not be a= ble to apply other operations such as "adding" in my example without implem= enting an "add" function, then software like Matlab, Scilab and Octave woul= d not be popular at all. What we need in Ada are people who have been using the scientific computati= on software mentioned above to think how to make Ada more accessible. Those= who design the Numerics annex should really think WHY they are providing t= hese mathematical functions and to what extent these are useful in practice= . Perhaps none of Ada core customers is involved in heavy matrix computatio= ns. All this reminds me of the OS of one best sold smartphones; either you like= what the developers are giving you or you don't. The developers do not car= e about user feedback. If Ada people continue to have this mentality, then = Ada will only be for the niche market unlike that phone which sells well be= cause of the feeling of prestige it gives! Leo and Nasser should be very much commended for their efforts to make lapa= ck possible with Ada. And Simon also for his math extension package for eig= ensysyem computation. But a greater involvement from the Ada community is n= eeded. As Nasser pointed out, perhaps we need our own Ada Bill Gates! YC