Arrays in LC [was: Re: [TAO] value() to obtain pointer functionality]

[Richard Gaskin]

Jacques Hausser wrote:

 > I fully agree with Bill about the ease of implementing the necessary
 > matrix operations functions in LC language - I did it, actually, for
 > what I needed, like computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors. It's not
 > even so slow if your matrices are not enormous !

That's pretty exciting.  Is that code available, and if so under what 
license?  I have a need for eigenvectors on the horizon.

 > As for big matrices crunching, well, meteorologists working with Cray
 > machines probably don't use LiveCode... (perhaps they should, to get
 > more convincing forecasts).

Cast my vote with "Should". :)

I used to feel LC may not be suited for many large-scale tasks, but 
looking back I think that's just an inferiority complex we can overcome.

Today's Big Data scene is chock full o' scripting languages, and there's 
no reason LiveCode can't attain its rightful place among them.

Here's just one of many data science blogs talking up the value of 
JavaScript in Node.js:
<http://adamfowlerml.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/why-i-like-node-js/>

In the Python world, their libraries and tools for parallel data 
processing include the Disco distributed MapReduce system, and others:
<https://wiki.python.org/moin/ParallelProcessing>

Heck, most of the books in O'Reilly's Data Science Starter Kit rely on 
scripting languages, often Python:
<http://shop.oreilly.com/category/get/data-science-kit.do>

Python's great, but in terms of applicable use-cases it's roughly on par 
with LiveCode on the desktop, much as PHP covers pretty much the same 
range of territory as LiveCode Server.

I'd like to think that as the LiveCode community grows, we'll see ever 
more tools and libraries of our own for this sort of work.  Run on 
commodity clusters, just like all the others, there's no end to what we 
can accomplish with LiveCode.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com