I find the way that you need to use `linspace` and `range` objects a bit jarring for when you want to write vectorized code, or when I want to pass an array to a function that requires an Array. I get how nice the iterators are when writing loops and that you can use `collect(iter)` to get a array (and that it is possible to write polymorphic code that takes LinSpace types and uses them like Arrays … but this hurts my small brain). But I find I that I often want to write code that uses an actual array and having to use `collect` all the time seems like a serious wart for an otherwise stunning language for science. ( https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/9637 gives the evolution I think of making these iterators)
For example recently the following code was posted/refined on this mailing list: function Jakes_Flat( fd, Ts, Ns, t0 = 0, E0 = 1, phi_N = 0 ) # Inputs: # # Outputs: N0 = 8; # As suggested by Jakes N = 4*N0+2; # An accurate approximation wd = 2*pi*fd; # Maximum Doppler frequency t = t0 + [0:Ns-1;]*Ts; tf = t[end] + Ts; coswt = [ sqrt(2)*cos(wd*t'); 2*cos(wd*cos(2*pi/N*[1:N0;])*t') ] temp = zeros(1,N0+1) temp[1,2:end] = pi/(N0+1)*[1:N0;]' temp[1,1] = phi_N h = E0/sqrt(2*N0+1)*exp(im*temp ) * coswt return h, tf; end >From <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/julia-users/_lIVpV0e_WI> Notice all the horrible [<blah>;] notations to make these arrays … and it seems like the devs want to get rid of this notation as well (which they should it is way too subtle in my opinion). So imagine the above code with `collect` statements. Is this the way people work? I find the `collect` statements in mathematical expressions to really break me out of the abstraction (that I am just writing math). I get that this could be written as an explicit loop, and this would likely make it faster as well (man I love looping in Julia). That being said in this case I don't find the vectorized version a performance issue, rather I prefer how this reads as it feels closer to the math to me. So my question: what is the Juilan way of making explicit arrays using either `range (:)` or `linspace`? Is it to pollute everything with `collect`? Would it be worth having versions of linspace that return an actual array? (something like alinspace or whatnot) Thanks for any tips, comments etc
