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=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8c424d8135e68278 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-12-21 10:40:04 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!psinet-eu-nl!psiuk-p4!uknet!psiuk-p3!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Math Libraries (was Re: Ada2005) Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 13:08:47 -0500 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9vvtrf$iqq$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <9v4jsj$bd1$1@infosun2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de> <9vt3vi$dmd$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3C22468C.30901@look.ca> <9vti0r$jrj$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3C236F94.7020101@look.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1008958127 19290 136.170.200.133 (21 Dec 2001 18:08:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 21 Dec 2001 18:08:47 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:18221 Date: 2001-12-21T18:08:47+00:00 List-Id: "FGD" wrote in message news:3C236F94.7020101@look.ca... > > I agree that linear algebra types such as vector and matrix would be a > nice language extension. These would benefit the most from hardware I don't know that it needs to be a language extension. That starts asking for something that is harder to do than simply providing a package and I don't see an enormous amount of utility to it. Most Ada programmers would probably easily comprehend and work with a package that defined "+" and so on for a vector or matrix type so I think you could get the features (albeit maybe not quite as cleanly) without forcing the compiler writers to make the language itself more complex. > extensions such as SIMD, and having them within the language would > ensure that all target machines are exploited to their full potential. > Obviously, it would be advantageous for a compiler writer to take advantage of any underlying hardware rather than rely strictly on Ada syntax to implement the type. The nice thing about implementing it as a package is that the body could be implementation dependent, but the spec could be portable. If you've got the hardware, implement it in assembler. > > I'm not too sure about stats. Basic stats can be handled with linear > algebra and elementary math. The problem is that it's not clear where to > stop. It's something to think about... > I'm thinking that some packages to get you things like mean, variance, standard deviation, etc., from arrays of various numeric types would be enough - for now. :-) (I've got some packages that do this already - it really isn't that hard to implement.) Sure, you could imagine all kinds of wonerful sophistication that one might get from a true statistical package, but why push our luck? Settle for some nice, basic statistics that let people throw some analysis into their run-of-the-mill apps rather than shoot for something that would satisfy the full-blown statisticians. It would still be ahead of most other languages I'm aware of and wouldn't require some major revision to the language syntax or semantics. Just a thought.... MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com Web: http://www.mcondic.com/