What could be improved in Ruby for Science?

Hello,
I’ve noticed that languages such as Python are becoming more and more
fashionable with the Scientific communities, along side more hard core
classics like Fortran and Java.

Do you think Ruby is missing some piece of technology to be useful in
science? Or poor libraries?
In the end what do you think that could be done to make Ruby more used
in Science?

Diego

Diego V. wrote:

I’ve noticed that languages such as Python are becoming more and more
fashionable with the Scientific communities, along side more hard core
classics like Fortran and Java.

Bioinformatics requires repeatedly shoveling huge blobs of data thru
simple &
not necessarily fast filters. Python (and Perl) scored early adoption
here. They
have nothing, technically, that Ruby doesn’t have, including the slow
part.

Do you think Ruby is missing some piece of technology to be useful in
science? Or poor libraries?
In the end what do you think that could be done to make Ruby more used
in Science?

All Ruby needs is better libraries, supporting an interacting community
of
practitioners. Everyone needs faster a Ruby, and we have all the same
visualization tools as Python.

On May 13, 2009, at 8:35 AM, Diego V. wrote:

Hello,
I’ve noticed that languages such as Python are becoming more and more
fashionable with the Scientific communities, along side more hard core
classics like Fortran and Java.

Diego

With the advent of ruby 1.9.1, the only advantage here at ACCRE of
fortran, c and c++ is speed. The multi-threaded, multi-processor,
multi-node jobs that we see could just as easily be done in ruby with
the appropriate library support. However, the fortran libs that do
FFT, say, have been honed over the last 40 years to provide speeds
only slightly slower than code done in assembler. Ruby, java, python
simply do not offer that. That does not mean that ruby could not be
used to drive such code. As more and more people in our science
departments discover the advantages of using ruby to access pre-built,
pre-optimized libs the move to using ruby will continue.

Cheers–

Charles

Charles J.
Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education
Vanderbilt University

Charles J. wrote:

With the advent of ruby 1.9.1, the only advantage here at ACCRE of
fortran, c and c++ is speed. The multi-threaded, multi-processor,
multi-node jobs that we see could just as easily be done in ruby with
the appropriate library support. However, the fortran libs that do
FFT, say, have been honed over the last 40 years to provide speeds
only slightly slower than code done in assembler. Ruby, java, python
simply do not offer that. That does not mean that ruby could not be
used to drive such code. As more and more people in our science
departments discover the advantages of using ruby to access pre-built,
pre-optimized libs the move to using ruby will continue.

That is exactly how videogames work. The lowest layer is custom display
hardware. Above that are drivers that manage huge strings of raw
instructions.

Above that is tuned C++ to manipulate the huge strings. And above that
is a
soft scripting language - typically Lua - to assemble the C++ primitives
into programmable actors who interact in scenarios.

When something is slow, you move it down one layer in the stack. So most
new
programming should happen in Lua, per the rule “premature optimization
is
the root of all evil”.

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 8:35 AM, Diego V.
[email protected] wrote:

Hello,
I’ve noticed that languages such as Python are becoming more and more
fashionable with the Scientific communities, along side more hard core
classics like Fortran and Java.

Do you think Ruby is missing some piece of technology to be useful in
science? Or poor libraries?
In the end what do you think that could be done to make Ruby more used
in Science?

Sounds like personal choice to me.

But for example Matt W. stated he processes 250TBs of genetics data
per day with Ruby:

http://www.vimeo.com/1104164?pg=embed&sec=1104164

I’m working in genetics research as well, and we’re really only using
Rails for our new web dev projects.

So, maybe what Ruby
really needs is to be better than Perl and Python.

I’d rather say it needs to be better than a specialized programming
language like R or whatever other language/environment is generally
preferred in your domain of expertise.

On May 13, 2009, at 9:35 AM, Diego V. wrote:

Hello,
I’ve noticed that languages such as Python are becoming more and more
fashionable with the Scientific communities, along side more hard core
classics like Fortran and Java.

Do you think Ruby is missing some piece of technology to be useful in
science? Or poor libraries?
In the end what do you think that could be done to make Ruby more used
in Science?

I have a sneaky suspicion that Ruby is being much more widely used in
Science than you might guess based just on forum posts and Google
searches. I think the biggest difference between science in Python and
science in Ruby is the sharing. For example, I’m using Ruby for some
evolutionary modeling for my Ph.D. thesis. I’ve thought about library-
izing some of the code, but that’s extra effort. In other words, it
seems like Ruby is almost “too good” in that it lets you do really
rapid development of experimental code without the need to first write
entire libraries. The first step in building a better science-ruby
community is remembering to share.

In that respect, let me be the first to post a link to
http://sciruby.codeforpeople.com/
, although it seems to be down (paging Dr. Howard?). Now, there’s
another problem in that, as has been mentioned, Python and Perl are
technically no better than Ruby for this sort of work. Of course, the
flip side of that is that Ruby is no better than they are, and they
already have communities with critical mass. So, maybe what Ruby
really needs is to be better than Perl and Python.

On that topic, one idea I’ve been batting around in my head is
extending Ruby’s prototyping capabilities and making Ruby methods
first class objects. This would have to either be a Ruby 2.0/2.1 goal,
or a fork of Ruby proper. However, what I imagine is that adding these
two pieces would make Ruby simply unbeatable for all classes of Object
composition patterns of programming (not just scientific programming).

…in my head there’s also a graphical representation of Ruby objects
as blocks and methods as slots in the blocks with lots of wires making
logical connections and it’s all equally code-able graphically and
textually…

Cheers,

Josh

Steven Hong wrote:

Hi all,

Steven with Manning Publications here. I wanted to let you know that
we’ve recently published two books on Ruby:

Thread-hijacking + marketing is not a good mix.

Hi all,

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Until Friday, May 22, you can get either or both books for 40% off at
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Steven Hong
Marketing Coordinator
Manning Publications
www.manning.com

Skype: stevenhong02
Twitter: ManningBooks

On May 13, 6:50 pm, Joel VanderWerf [email protected] wrote:

Steven Hong wrote:

Hi all,

Steven with Manning Publications here. I wanted to let you know that
we’ve recently published two books on Ruby:

Thread-hijacking + marketing is not a good mix.


vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407

Have a look at the Maya Project (ruby in astrophysics).

http://www.artcompsci.org/kali/five-year-plan3.html

Joshua B.:

I have a sneaky suspicion that Ruby is being much more widely used
in Science than you might guess based just on forum posts and Google
searches. I think the biggest difference between science in Python
and science in Ruby is the sharing. For example, I’m using Ruby for
some evolutionary modeling for my Ph.D. thesis. I’ve thought about
library-izing some of the code, but that’s extra effort. In other
words, it seems like Ruby is almost “too good” in that it lets you
do really rapid development of experimental code without the need
to first write entire libraries. The first step in building a better
science-ruby community is remembering to share.

Hear, hear. I use Ruby for my PhD as well (functional decomposition
of FSMs for implementation in FPGAs), and am just rewriting¹ my first
version from scratch (targetting Ruby 1.9 along the way). I do try to
have a fat library with just a thin ‘executable’ around it, but getting
it working first is more important than getting it reusable outright
(I also don’t see that much use for it outside of my PhD, but I might
be wrong here).

¹ GitHub - chastell/art-decomp

In that respect, let me be the first to post a link to
http://sciruby.codeforpeople.com/, although it seems to
be down (paging Dr. Howard?).

Sadly, there also aren’t any files at the relevant RubyForge page.

— Shot

On May 16, 2009, at 8:26 AM, Robert D. wrote:

Ruby has qualities Perl and Python can only dream of, and Perl and
Python have some that elude me, I admit.
However I guess that most people on this list share the view that Ruby
just is better for most jobs.

I guess that, and you see I do take your statement very seriously that
it would be “our” job to pass this message on. Hmm maybe we need,
“What Ruby (and only Ruby) can do for you” blog :).

There’s an old adage in software development (or, as old as an adage
about a 50 year old profession can be) that if the customer does not
know about a feature of your program, then that feature doesn’t exist!
I agree that Ruby has many strengths over Perl and Python for
scientific programming. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be using it. However,
the strengths don’t quite align with how I think most scientists
approach computing. That is, Ruby is a beautiful language. Call it a
Katana, beautifully crafted with patience and care and decorated with
ancient symbols of strength and power. Now, the average scientific
programmer is approaching the problem as if it were meat to be
chopped, so they reach past the Katana in your outstretched hand for
the dirty, dull, and nicked meat cleaver.

In other words, it’s not that scientific programming can’t take
advantage of Ruby’s enhanced abilities, it’s that they don’t. I
think an “Annie Oakley” blog would be a great idea (“Anything you can
do I can do better”)! Unfortunately, (ironically, even) I don’t have
the time to run such a blog. However, if somebody wanted to set
something like that up, I’d be happy to participate. Maybe the guys
over at the “Ruby Best Practices” blog would be interested?

As for my suggestions about prototype inheritance and first-class
functions (and I believe that I’m probably the only one making much
noise about this recently), let me explain quickly: I’m doing
evolutionary modeling. The basic idea is to represent cells, and what
those cells can do, in Ruby code. Now, I could (and very well might)
write a DSL for the problem space. If Ruby had prototype based
inheritance and first-class functions, on the other hand, a DSL
wouldn’t be needed as objects could sub in for evolving cells.

So, it’s not just the classic compositional patterns that would be
easier to implement, but fun new paradigms that could be approached
using Ruby in new ways too…

…just thoughts…use them as you see fit

  • Josh

On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 5:25 PM, Joshua B. [email protected]
wrote:

the dirty, dull, and nicked meat cleaver.
Hmm I am a very lazy guy and I never could become friends with Python
because it was just standing in my way. ( Perl was not, however :slight_smile:
In other words, it’s not that scientific programming can’t take advantage
of Ruby’s enhanced abilities, it’s that they don’t. I think an “Annie
Oakley” blog would be a great idea (“Anything you can do I can do better”)!
Unfortunately, (ironically, even) I don’t have the time to run such a blog.
However, if somebody wanted to set something like that up, I’d be happy to
participate. Maybe the guys over at the “Ruby Best Practices” blog would be
interested?
This is truly a great idea, however I somehow tend to disagree with
your assessment about the needs to see Ruby’s full powers to
appreciate it.
To put it constructive: Whatever you can do, I can do “simpler”!
This is a challenge I really would like to take :slight_smile:

As for my suggestions about prototype inheritance and first-class functions
(and I believe that I’m probably the only one making much noise about this
recently)
it is almost sure now, nobody reads my blog, but let us see…
…just thoughts…use them as you see fit
Oh I will :wink: I find them fascinating, maybe we need something like a
very high level bytecode, I have already registered a Rubyforge
project for this but lost speed. My idea was to serialize methods and
send them to a remote vm to be executed there (potentially with URL
based closures and maybe even a network based local variable lookup ).
I always wondered what might happen if a “send :+” mutates to a “send
:-” ;).
Seriously I will try to give this some more thought about how lambdas
could be “modified”, I guess composition is the first idea that comes
into mind.

Cheers
Robert

Toutes les grandes personnes ont d’abord été des enfants, mais peu
d’entre elles s’en souviennent.

All adults have been children first, but not many remember.

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

On May 13, 9:35 am, Diego V. [email protected] wrote:

In the end what do you think that could be done to make Ruby more used
in Science?

Help improve Stick.

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Joshua B. [email protected]
wrote:

in Science?

In that respect, let me be the first to post a link to
http://sciruby.codeforpeople.com/, although it seems to be down (paging Dr.
Howard?). Now, there’s another problem in that, as has been mentioned,
Python and Perl are technically no better than Ruby for this sort of work.
Of course, the flip side of that is that Ruby is no better than they are,
you must be kidding here :wink: No it is me who’s kidding, let me try to
explain please:

Ruby has qualities Perl and Python can only dream of, and Perl and
Python have some that elude me, I admit.
However I guess that most people on this list share the view that Ruby
just is better for most jobs.

I guess that, and you see I do take your statement very seriously that
it would be “our” job to pass this message on. Hmm maybe we need,
“What Ruby (and only Ruby) can do for you” blog :).

and they already have communities with critical mass. So, maybe what Ruby
really needs is to be better than Perl and Python.
I

On that topic, one idea I’ve been batting around in my head is extending
Ruby’s prototyping capabilities and making Ruby methods first class objects.
Hmm this seems to recur today What about traits or prototypes with
behavior.
Apart of potential performance (but who cares at design time) I do not
see any problem not to use methods anymore but only lambdas (Ruby1.9
that is, 1.8 seems too much pain for that IMHO). Actually I have
blogged about that quite some time ago (I am not going to link to my
blog twice a day, that would be very bad taste indeed).
Ruby-traits do that already and PPP could easily be extended that way.
However the question that remains is, are lambdas objects enough?
I mean, would we like to do things as:

l = lambda{ |y| x+=1; y *x }
l.code => ‘???’
l.bytecodes =>
l.insert_code_after

or simply have complete control of the bytecode in a respective way,
am I getting OT again?

This would have to either be a Ruby 2.0/2.1 goal, or a fork of Ruby proper.
However, what I imagine is that adding these two pieces would make Ruby
simply unbeatable for all classes of Object composition patterns of
programming (not just scientific programming).
Like AOP
Robert

Toutes les grandes personnes ont d’abord été des enfants, mais peu
d’entre elles s’en souviennent.

All adults have been children first, but not many remember.

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

On May 13, 2009, at 9:35 AM, Diego V. wrote:

Diego

In order to learn anything you have to give up hope of learning
everything.
Most of the scientific community I work with has chosen not to learn
much about
software languages and tools citing the hope (or convenient fiction)
that none
of that matters. Some will confide that tools might make a difference
but it’s
too much of a time synch to really examine the problem. Scientists are
interested in their fields more than software.

Right now there are few scientific libraries for Ruby and the ones
that exist
often lack polish, are difficult to contribute to, and are difficult
to install
and setup. In comparision, a lot of the more Internet oriented Ruby
libraries
are well tested, available as easy to install gems, ported to work on
lots of
Ruby VMs, and available on modern distributed version control systems
making
contributions, maintenance, and sharing much easier.

Possibly there is a window of opportunity during which Ruby solutions
will be
adopted if they are sufficiently available. I don’t think it would
take that much
time, effort, and money to make Ruby’s scientific libraries a lot more
compelling
than they are now.

On May 18, 2009, at 3:08 PM, Juan Z. wrote:

in
Most of the scientific community I work with has chosen not to learn
that exist
Possibly there is a window of opportunity during which Ruby
solutions will be
adopted if they are sufficiently available. I don’t think it would
take that much
time, effort, and money to make Ruby’s scientific libraries a lot
more compelling
than they are now.

So let’s do something about that then, eh?

  • Josh

On May 18, 2009, at 3:26 PM, Joshua B. wrote:

core

are
Ruby VMs, and available on modern distributed version control

So let’s do something about that then, eh?

  • Josh

That was fast.

On May 18, 2009, at 9:39 AM, trans wrote:

On May 13, 9:35 am, Diego V. [email protected] wrote:

In the end what do you think that could be done to make Ruby more
used
in Science?

Help improve Stick.

Is there a GitHub repo/mirror of this project? I’d love to add this to
RubyScience, but (at least for the time being) I’m trying to limit
that to GitHub projects.

  • Josh

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 3:08 PM, Juan Z.
[email protected]wrote:

In the end what do you think that could be done to make Ruby more used
of that matters. Some will confide that tools might make a difference but
it’s
too much of a time synch to really examine the problem. Scientists are

you mean time sink? If the scientists were able to perform a time
synch,
then they could learn everything about everything. That’d be awesome.

interested in their fields more than software.

Right now there are few scientific libraries for Ruby and the ones that
exist
often lack polish, are difficult to contribute to, and are difficult to
install
and setup. In comparision, a lot of the more Internet oriented Ruby
libraries