For both non-integer indexing and linrange, it seems that complaints about
"hard for newcomers" really mean "hard for newcomers from Matlab". Maybe
there should be a MatlabCompat.jl package that restores Matlab behaviour.
For some things, this can be done without overloading base:
*julia> **module MatlabCompat*
*linspace(a,b,c)=collect(Base.linspace(a,b,c))*
*end*
*julia> **using MatlabCompat*
*julia> **linspace=MatlabCompat.linspace*
*julia> **linspace(1,2,3)*
*3-element Array{Float64,1}:*
* 1.0*
* 1.5*
* 2.0*
*julia> **Base.linspace(1,2,3)*
*linspace(1.0,2.0,3)*
As long as no package depends on MatlabCompat, then the issue of
non-standard code will be localized.
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 7:32:17 AM UTC+11, Milan Bouchet-Valat
wrote:
>
> Le mardi 17 novembre 2015 à 02:46 -0800, Peter Kovesi a écrit :
> > Thanks Eric. Yes I appreciate that the language is highly flexible
> > and one can do lots of things. I don't want to get hung up on using
> > indexing with integer valued floats in particular, my concern is more
> > philosophical
> I'm sympathetic to the idea of allowing indexing with reals, but so far
> I haven't found very compelling examples to support my position. Could
> you provide concrete use cases where this makes life easier, at least
> for newcomers? Julia's development is often driven by actual
> experiences of what is really useful and what isn't.
>
>
> Regards
>
> > For much of what I do I am wanting to solve some technical problem
> > within an environment that involves a minimal overhead in solving the
> > coding problem. If, as I am developing my solution, I end up writing
> > some code that happens to use indexing with integer valued floats, or
> > would find a meshgid() function handy, then I do not want the
> > language to 'get in my way'. (Hands up everyone who has their own
> > implementation of meshgrid() !) Yes I know these things are not
> > required and are not efficient but I may find them handy and I don't
> > want to be distracted from solving my technical problem while I
> > attend to any finicky language issues. I want to develop my
> > initial solution with the minimal amount of code and the minimal
> > number of special data types. Later, when I have things solved, I
> > can return to the code and re-engineer it for efficiency
> >
> > It is extremely attractive that you can engineer your Julia code to
> > be highly efficient but I am hoping the language can develop in a
> > way that does not compromise simplicity and convenience.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Peter
>
