[Gsll-devel] GSLL utility development

[Liam Healy]

I have checked in my start at array utilities which have been moldering
around for a few weeks.   They are in linear-algebra/matrix-generation.lisp.
I wrote them so that I could generate matrices and vectors for the linear
algebra tests which I added last month, but generalized somewhat based
on a colleague's experience using GSLL in robotics.  I still need to
fold in Malcolm's and other ideas, so I've not exported the symbols, but
they should be usable with a double colon.

My discussion with Sikander (and ntd, fe[nl]ix, rtoym) was very helpful.
He suggested that the array handling of numpy be emulated.  Based on
his description, it sounds like a good model, but I'm not familiar with
it.  If anyone on the list is, I'd appreciate a quick synopsis and/or pointer
to same.

I unfortunately didn't get Sikander's real name/email.  He started the
conversation by asking about what CL packages were available for
linear algebra.  He wasn't aware of GSLL but had used GSL in C quite
a bit.  By the time the conversation had ended, he had whipped up
and tested a simulation using Runge-Kutta that had taken him hours
in C.  He was very impressed that it took him only 5 minutes in GSLL
(while chatting on IRC).  I invited him to join this mailing list and post
his experiences but he had quit the room by the time I suggested
it, unfortunately.

If you wish to see the discussion, look at
http://tunes.org/~nef/logs/lisp/09.10.15
starting at 15:25:11

Liam


On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Malcolm Reynolds
<malcolm.reynolds at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've exchanged a few emails with Liam about trying to add some
> functionality to GSLL that goes beyond what is found in GSL, to try
> and make a more useful overall platform for working with Matrices and
> Vectors. My personal aim is to make CL a viable alternative to MATLAB
> which in my field (Machine Learning / Computer Vision) is a de facto
> standard for quickly messing around with data. I plan to use GSLL for
> as much of my work as I can, and when I end up having to write any
> general utilities, try to get them into the main codebase. Liam said
> there was some related chat on #lisp so it seems sensible to take our
> discussion to the mailing list where maybe more people will have ideas
> / want to contribute.
>
> My current efforts to this end are found in
> http://github.com/malcolmreynolds/GSLL - look in the branch
> malcolm-utils and then the utils/ directory. Nothing earthshaking,
> just some matrix looping macros and concatenation functions, but I
> plan to continue adding things here.
>
> I apologise in advance for my code, I'm still pretty new to CL, so if
> you read something and say 'ewww', please tell me how I could do it
> better! Hopefully at some point this will be incorporated into the
> main GSLL tree, but for the time being I'll continue hacking on this
> as and when I think of something I should add. Ideas welcome!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Malcolm
>
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