Skip to main content

How and why multiple dispatch is good (Julia vs Python)

I'm really interested in the programming language, Julia, for several reasons, multiple dispatch being prominent among them. (I have some painful contortions in the Python implementation of my speculative programming project, Spherical. The contortions would not be necessary if Python was implemented with efficient multiple dispatch.) I think this video gets at the essence of multiple dispatch's virtue.

Unfortunately it's a video, who has time for that? The distilled message is that the multiple dispatch (multimethods) solves The Expression Problem, and that's not a small thing. It's an oblique way of saying that it's a more comprehensive way to do procedural composition than other approaches, and so fundamentally has greater potential for comprehensibility. Composition is the essence of building stuff, and comprehensibility is the factor that governs collaboration between people - including, for that matter, of a person with themself over time.

I love Python, but Julia looks better.

Here's the video, from juliacon 2019:


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blogger silently drops comments submitted by Safari in embedded-comments mode

We've noticed that comments submitted from Apple Safari (Mac or iPhone) are dropped without any notification if the blog is set with Comment location = Embedded. Having set it to Pop up (I think), it worked. We're going to try some more tests. That's what this post is for! From the comments testing we discovered some useful things: Using Comment location = embedded: Is necessary to enable replying to specific comments. Comments posted from Safari (laptop or iOS) are silently dropped. It looks to the person posting the comment that it went through, but the blog moderator sees no sign of it at all. Using Comment location = Pop up or Full page: Inhibits option to reply to other comments – no comment threads Enables comments from Safari The trade-off is clear. Losing comments from people who think they submitted them successfully is not acceptable. Particularly from a prominent browser (currently estimated to be a bit less than 4% of users). I just hate to lose comment threadin...

A Contemplative Movement Online Score

Barbara Dilley developed a shared dance/meditation practice called Contemplative Dance Practice – CDP, a "dancer's meditation hall". I've been exploring adaptation of this score for online sharing. The aim is to share meditation and movement across the gap of social distancing. (See below the score description for online meeting logistics and further info about the practices.) (The framing of this score is a work in progress, continuing to change. Revision information is at the bottom.) Score Description The score is divided into sections. At the beginning of each timed section the facilitator says which section it is and arranges for a bell to sound at the beginning and the end of that section. Opening Circle : Time for brief introductions / check-ins and to review the outline of the score (essentially, the bold headers below). Meditation: 15 minutes for stillness . In the original score the participants share sitting meditation. We invite whatever meditat...

Exploring Adaptation of the Underscore for Online Practice

I had early experience with the  Underscore  a few times while  Nancy Stark Smith  was developing it, before she found a name for it. Since those early days it has gotten a name and continued to grow, and it has become a practice for many, many groups around the world. I have been leading Underscores for the DC Sunday jam almost every month since the December 2013. I love how the Underscore works, love the sharing situation that it tends to foster. In recent days of the Coronavirus quarantine, a group exploring sharing of movement online has started to explore adapting the Underscore for online sharing. I've had the opportunity to try what others are doing, and an opportunity to adapt it for an online session myself. I wonder, can we arrive online at the often open and receptive shared presence if can foster? I'm not sure, but believe that something is possible. Whatever we discover, I know it will be different from an in-person Underscore. Online meetings are diffe...