Thanks for your interest in my questions. Just to clarify a few things : 1. Can I use some form of macros like in rust or Julia to allow new syntax inside ATS ? My goal is to allow writing directly something like `A.i.j = 12` or something more complex like I showed in my original mail.
2. If adding some new syntax is not possible, can I write a parser with ATS itself to do that and generate ATS code behind ? 3. In the meantime I looked into more detail into the possibilities of ATS with regards to ranged indexing, and indeed I can do exactly what I want, but again I would like to know if I can create a specific syntax for some manipulations,. 4. You mention writing FFI but can I keep all of ATS advantages (proofs, types, etc.) while writing FFI ? In my mind, if I go to another language, I lose all guarantees. 5. Concerning syntax again, it looks like ATS does not support UTF-8 names for `var` or `fn` : is there a way around this ? Or maybe this goes back to question 2. ? 6. As for concurrency, how does the actor model make sense within ATS ? Is the ATS type-system a superset of the actor model as implemented in Pony for example ? To finish, does using pthreads mean I write some wrappers on top of libpthread or similar like Rust does and have ATS bring me guarantees with my concurrent code ? On Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 12:28:30 AM UTC+1 d4v3y_5c0n3s wrote: > Hi Yann, > I'm glad to see others showing interest in ATS :D. I'm not very > familiar with the sort of scientific programming that you are talking > about, but I'll do my best to respond to your questions regardless. > You asked whether you could use 128 bit integers, SIMD, multicore, and > even distributed computing. Like, holy moly man. :D But yea, ATS can do > basically anything C can, with the caveat that you may need to write FFI > code due to the small size of the ATS ecosystem. > As for the static capabilities of ATS, this I believe to be the > strongest quality of ATS. Indexing into arrays/matrices is verified at > compile time so your example should be recreate-able in ATS. And no, ATS' > type system doesn't require you to constantly cast to verify the range of > an integer, but it will force you write your code in such a way that the > system knows without a doubt that the integer is not out of range. It's > hard to explain, but if you are interested I'd recommend working through > the Intro to ATS book in the documentation on the website. > I'm not involved with the development of ATS3, so gmhwxi would know more > about how much it will change. I'd recommend reading previous posts about > ATS3 to find out more. > Good luck. > > On Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 12:46:12 PM UTC-5 Yann Le Du wrote: > >> Dear ATSites, >> >> First, impressed by the power of ATS which unfortunately for me is still >> inaccessible even after spending the typical time I spend overviewing other >> languages. For sure, I've listened to many people saying how hard it was, >> so that didn't help ;-) Maybe they want to keep ATS for themselves and >> frighten away potential new users ? >> >> I'm a physicist, cosmologist, currently working on setting up a project >> involving image reconstruction, around what the Chebfun matlab toolbox >> implements. Now, I've been looking at Dex, he new google research language, >> because that's typically what I need,for exactly the same reason the >> designers made Dex (escape Matlab and go for more than its clone on juice, >> Julia) but it looks very experimental and doesn't really have all I need, >> especially interfacing with C. >> >> So first, would I be able to massage ATS into allowing some nice syntax, >> I mean can I code a library (using whatever tools I totally don't >> understand today) that would allow me to write >> >> `for i,j: C.i.j = A.i.k * B.k.j` >> >> In a very similar way to Dex (who has ranged integer type for the >> indices), i.e. which would be interpreted as : >> >> ``` >> for i in rows range of A: >> for j in colums range of B: >> for k in cols of A == rows of B: >> C[i,j] = A[i,k] * B[k,j] >> ``` >> >> or whatever equivalent in ATS. >> >> You will notice that it loops implicitly on k (Einstein summation), thus >> without me specifying k, and all the indices getting checked like in Dex at >> compile time, with inference wherever needed. This means I want to be able >> to write M.2.3 = 25 (meaning M[2,3]=5) without casting overhead like in Dex >> (they have to cast from integers to ranged ordinals if I remember). >> >> I would also need support for 128 bit integers and all for cryptographic >> uses, the possibility of defining >> >> foo(m `Matrix[12 rows, any u32 in [0,23] columns, any float type for the >> elements, unknown variance]`) >> >> and then call foo with `foo(b)` and b is checked to fit the type declared >> for foo's arguments, so it wold tell me if I try to put in a matrix with >> too many rows, but accept a matrix with 12 rows and 21 columns filled with >> f32, the possibility of defining a set of accepted types, including >> constants, and check if what I use belongs to that set, abstractions like >> OO to better contain the math abstractions we manipulate. >> >> Also, the possibility to implement the right structures for SIMD and all >> that, SOA, etc. This organizing my memory as I want, perhaps not from the >> start, but as the project progresses. >> >> The possibility of multicores, and distributed computing. >> >> Proving that some functions are right. >> >> And last but not least, how much will I have to [un|re]learn when ATS3 is >> released ? >> >> And maybe other questions will follow if the above receives positive >> answers... >> >> By the way, why no Discord channel ? It's so helpful for a community. >> >> It's a big pile of questions, I just want to know if learning ATS could >> make those features possible. My other path is to go to Rust and hope I can >> massage the macros to handle my syntax, but Rust doesn't have true range >> types for the tensor indices I want to use, although some crate imitates >> them, and ATS looks much more powerful to me. >> >> That's it, I hope ATS can do all that. >> >> Best, >> >> Yann >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ats-lang-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ats-lang-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ats-lang-users/050cc3c5-3d7e-4fcd-9573-038f0170f631n%40googlegroups.com.
