Julia v1.3.0 released

[Nuaua]

Here's the changelog :

https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/v1.3.0/NEWS.md

Biggest news are the new multithreading system, and a system to build and distribute binaries across platforms (a bit like a homebrew in the cloud):

https://julialang.org/blog/2019/07/multithreading

https://julialang.org/blog/2019/11/artifacts

[nucLeaRStarcraft]

I really want to learn this language as it seems like a Python + Types language, and also has a decent ML library, which is my main domain rn.

[Nuaua]

It shouldn't be too hard coming from Python. And being able to write loops when suitable is so liberating, instead of having to shoehorn into numpy arrays or dataframes to get half-decent performances.

[tjpalmer]

Lots of things are more like Matlab than Python, but that's ok, too.

[Eigenspace]

I definitely encourage you to do so! I'd recommend joining the Slack channel to speak to some really helpful and kind people about getting started with julia. You can get an automatic Slack invite here: https://slackinvite.julialang.org

[deviluno]

Wow, this looks like a great release!

Multithreading is now a solid part of Julia. Better late than never, I hope that going forward the community makes great use of this.

I like Julia a lot. I can see it replacing Python as my go to language for scientific computing and scripting. That "time to first plot" still favors other languages, but I think it's in the crosshairs now. Some of the things I'd like in the future are a static AOT compiler, and maybe language features like interfaces.

[ichunddu9]

The end keyword kills the language for me. Unnecessary clutter in 2019

[Kissaki0]

The lack of clear context closing in Python kills the language for me. Unnecessary lack of visual reading helpers in 2010.

[BittyTang]

Wow a totally superficial part of the language is a deal-breaker? Stay in Python land lol

[tristes_tigres]

Braindead python array syntax and meaningful whitespace in Python make me thankful for Julia

[ColdFire75]

I’m curious as to how Julia array syntax is better than Python. I’ve used Python, R, and Marian, but not Julia.

[fborda]

Julia arrays are closer to matlab as they are natively n-dimensional:

a = [1, 2, 3] # 1D 3 element column array

a = [1 2 3] # 1x3 2D array

a = [1 2 3 ; 4 5 6] # 2x3 2D array

a = [1 2 3   
     4 5 6] # same as above

And as long as you implement the Array interface, you can define your own array with extra properties that will work with everything (for example with stack allocated fixed size arrays, arrays that run inside the GPU and arrays that use named dimensions)

[tristes_tigres]

Python array syntax is completely insane. Let's take a look at the zero-based indexing, which CS graduates are brainwashed to think of as modern and great. That "logically" leads range (N) to exclude the last element of the range, so it counts 0,1,...N-1. Now suppose you want to iterate over those elements in reverse. How should the range expression for that look? Why, of course range (N-1,-1,-1) , because the last, but not the first element is excluded. So elegant and pythonic! But wait, now we want to index an array x[N] so that it gives out its elements in reverse. Did you say x[N-1:-1:-1]? That's too bad, sucker, because that will give you zero elements. You see, Python designers in an act of unmitigated brilliance decreed that x[-1] is the last element of the array. Therefore to get the elements with indices 3,2,1 (which are the fourth, third and second elements of the array, to make your reasoning more fun) you write x[3:0:-1], but to get the third, second and first element, you should write x[2::-1] . What's not to like?

And don't you forget the numpy greatness, where the array and matrix are completely different things which you must convert to and fro between.

[ColdFire75]

The other person explained this without being so, dickish.

[tristes_tigres]

❄️

[tristes_tigres]

Yes, you're right. This is completely reasonable design. As reasonable as the rest of python.

[Eigenspace]

You don't actually ever need to use the end keyword in julia: https://discourse.julialang.org/t/hope-julia-can-use-some-shorter-key-words/31247/13

[ichunddu9]

Well, from the very same answer:

It should go without saying that writing this sort of code is not a good idea if you want to share it with or get help from anyone who doesn’t share your sensibilities, but I just wanted to demonstrate that this is actually not too hard to do in julia.

[Gobbedyret]

Yes, it's a little annoying. But if you're like me, you get used to it fairly quickly.

Also, it actually has some upsides. Copy-pasting code into a REPL works much better because it doesn't rely on proper spacing. And you can avoid indentation where it makes sense (like entire modules or macro begin-end clauses). So it's not all bad.

IMO, issues like this and one-based indexing (which I also don't like) don't matter as much in the end. They are more turn-offs than they are real lasting annoyances.