Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: The experience

Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by OkayPhysicist on Tuesday November 25, 2025 @07:34PM (#46052688)

Unless you think "most programmers" === "shitty webapp developers", I strongly disagree. Matrices are first class, important components in statistics, data analysis, graphics, video games, scientific computing, simulation, artificial intelligence and so, so much more.

And all of those programmers are either using specialized languages, (suffering problems when they want to turn their program into a shitty web app, for example), or committing crimes against syntax like

rotation_matrix.matmul(vectorized_cat)

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by lock1 on Tuesday November 25, 2025 @09:11PM (#46053422)

That's needlessly aggressive. Ignoring webapps, you could do gamedev without even knowing what a matrix is.

You don't even need such construction in most native applications, embedded systems, and OS kernel development.

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by theamk on Wednesday November 26, 2025 @12:04AM (#46054354)

I am working in embedded. Had to optimize weights for an embedded algorithm, decided to use linear regression and thus needed matrices.

And if you do robotics, the chances of encountering a matrix are very high.

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by throwaway2037 on Wednesday November 26, 2025 @12:04AM (#46054355)

This is my exactly point. Even in a highly specialised library for pricing securities, the amount of code that uses matrices is surprisingly small.

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by voidUpdate on Wednesday November 26, 2025 @08:52AM (#46057393)

To be fair, I do use matrices a reasonable amount in gamedev. And if you're writing your engine from scratch, rather than using something like unity, you will almost certainly need matrices

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by spookie on Thursday November 27, 2025 @02:00AM (#46066517)

Even when using some game engine you need some prior knowledge. Otherwise you are just throwing stuff at the wall and see if it sticks.

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by spookie on Thursday November 27, 2025 @01:58AM (#46066507)

I really doubt this.

Even through UE blueprints (assuming the most high level abstraction here) you will come across the need to perform calculations with matrices. While a lot is abstracted away, you still need to know about coordinate spaces, quirks around order of operations, etc.

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by habinero on Wednesday November 26, 2025 @01:38AM (#46054764)

I don't see why the majority of engineers need to cater to your niche use cases. It's a programming language, you can just make the library if it doesn't exist. Nobody's stopping you.

Plus, plenty of third party projects have been incorporated into the Python standard library.

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Re:Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: ... by Koshkin on Wednesday November 26, 2025 @10:56AM (#46058675)

At least in C++ you don't need 'matmul'

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