help me pick which to use for physics prog. : perl or bash? also need some resources

jhwilliams · 04-26-2009, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

I use Perl as much as i use Python and so for the above comment, its really one sided. For this case, if you say Perl has PDL, then Python has NumPy.

Boy oh boy, look at ghostdog's signature! This son of a gun is ready to write some scripts.

NumPy is great -- Python+NumPy is a better solution for numerical work than MAPLE/MATLAB/Proprietary binary garbage bucket X, imho. But my needs have rarely gone beyond manipulating matrices.

Sergei Steshenko · 04-26-2009, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

I use Perl as much as i use Python and so for the above comment, its really one sided. For this case, if you say Perl has PDL, then Python has NumPy.

No, I didn't at all mean that Perl has PDL and Python has nothing comparable. I know pretty well that NumPy exists and is powerful and popular.

I meant purely programming language features, not available packages, and we've already discussed this - with code examples, references to Wiki, etc.

jmd9qs · 04-26-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhwilliams

Boy oh boy, if you're afraid C will be confusing, I'd hold off on C++. :-) It takes quite a while just to understand all of the langauge "extensions" in C++...

o.k.; taken into consideration, thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhwilliams

By far the biggest factors in a programs efficiency are the underlying algorithms -- written by the programmer -- nearly regardless of the language. But Python is an interpreted language -- it does not compile directly to byte code as do languages like C. So each line is processed as the program runs. Furthermore, C has (as you say) features to dig into the operating system (which is written in C anyway) and the underlying hardware, that a high level (aka "abstracted") language like Python is not suited for.

awesome explanation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhwilliams

Best of luck -- Jameson

same to you... thanks again!

josh

jmd9qs · 04-26-2009, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sergei Steshenko

Or Perl fro that matter - complex numbers look even more natural

taken into consideration, thanks again!

josh

jmd9qs · 04-26-2009, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

I use Perl as much as i use Python... For this case, if you say Perl has PDL, then Python has NumPy.

seems like either one will work just fine, i just need to figure out which modules to use...

thanks!

josh