Re: An embedded DB engine

From: Scott Robert Ladd (scott_at_coyotegulch.com)
Date: 01/03/04 

Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2004 14:23:26 GMT

On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 05:55:14 -0800, beliavsky wrote:
> The Blitz C++ library claims to rival Fortran in its array-handling
> abilities, both in simplicity of syntax and performance. It now
> compiles with Visual C++ .NET 2003, so it is available to many more
> programmers. Do you have an opinion of Blitz? Is there another C++
> matrix/vector class you prefer?

The Blitz++ library is an interesting attempt at developing array and
matrix libraries in C++ -- but it (as yet) incomplete, and the syntax is
(in my opinion) confusing for anyone who is not a C++ expert. It uses
templates to define ranges and compound types, much like the code from my
mid-90s books.

I have not run any performance comparisons, although I do not doubt that
C++ performance can come close to that of Fortran for certain applications.

I do not see a particular technical advantage to using Blitz++ (or a
similar library) over Fortran. Perhaps politics dictates that all software
be written in C++ for a given project; however, Blitz++ does not appear to
lower the learning curve or otherwise simplify code that could be
written cleanly and directly in Fortran 95.

Over the years, I've seen strong resistance to multilingual programming.
I've watched biologists write incredibly complex (and unmaintainable
systems) in Perl, seen people try to develop large desktop applications in
Java, and marveled at C++ people try to emulate every feature of every
other programming language. It seems to me that different problems exist
in different realms that are best addressed by different syntaxes and
philosophies; however, I appear to be in a minority in this regard.

Programming languages should be tools, not religions. 

-- 
Scott Robert Ladd
Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com)
Software Invention for High-Performance Computing

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