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Python, Machine Learning, and Language Wars (2015)

sebastianraschka.com

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Re: Python, Machine Learning, and Language Wars (2015)

#2

Post by faaef »

Buddha about Language Wars:

Then the Buddha gave advice of extreme importance to the group of Brahmins: 'It is not proper for a wise man who maintains (lit. protects) truth to come to the conclusion: "This alone is Truth, and everything else is false'.' Asked by the young Brahmin to explain the idea of maintaining or protecting truth, the Buddha said: ' A man has a faith. If he says, "This is my faith", so far he maintains truth. But by 9 that he cannot proceed to the absolute conclusion: "This alone is Truth, and everything else is false". In other words, a man may believe what he likes, and he may say 'I believe this'. So far he respects truth. But because of his belief or faith, he should not say that what he believes is alone the Truth, and everything else is false.

(from "What the Buddha taught, a really great book!)

Re: Python, Machine Learning, and Language Wars (2015)

#3

Post by danso »

As someone who's switched from Ruby to Python (for now, because the latter is far easier to teach, IMO) and also put significant time into learning R, because of how strong ggplot2 is...I was really surprised at the lack of Google results for "switching from python to r" -- or similarly phrased queries to find guides on how to go from Python to R...in fact, that particular query will bring up more results for R -> Python than the other way around (e.g. "Python Displacing R as The Programming Language For Data")...Talk of R is so ubiquitous in academia (and in the wild, ggplot2 tends to wow nearly on the same level as D3) that I had just assumed there was a fair number of developers who have tried jumping into R...but there aren't...I think minimaxir's guides are the most and only comprehensive how-to-do-R-as-written-by-an-outsider things I've seen on the web [1]. But by and far the common scenario is that of the author's: "Well, I guess it’s no big secret that I was an R person once"

That said, one of the things I've appreciated about R is how it "just works"...I usually go through Homebrew, but RStudio works just as well. I can see why that's a huge appeal for both beginners and people who want to do computation but not necessarily become developers.

Also, I used to hate how `[1] http://minimaxir.com/2015/02/ggplot-tutorial/

[2] http://adv-r.had.co.nz/Style.html

Re: Python, Machine Learning, and Language Wars (2015)

#4

Post by akshayB »

There are lot of options when it comes to machine learning frameworks open source and commercial as well. Also many of these frameworks are designed to solve a specific problem. Some of the machine learning frameworks are optimized to run on certain types of hardware. In my opinion selecting a machine learning framework depends on the technology stack of your company because it makes lot of sense to leverage existing system rather then developing everything on an entirely new infrastructure and language.

Re: Python, Machine Learning, and Language Wars (2015)

#5

Post by CalRobert »

danso wrote: post #3

As someone who's switched from Ruby to Python (for now, because the latter is far easier to teach, IMO) and also put significant time into learning R, because of how strong ggplot2 is...I was really surprised at the lack of Google results for "switching from python to r" -- or similarly phrased queries to find guides on how to go from Python to R...in fact, that particular query will bring up more results for R -> Py…

You know, I remember when I was trying my first language other than BASIC (VB6, perhaps? or maybe 1995 era JS?) and it bugged me that "x = y" wasn't the same as "y = x". Remembering it as "LET x = y" was helpful.

Re: Python, Machine Learning, and Language Wars (2015)

#7

Post by gedrap »

CalRobert wrote: post #5
danso wrote: post #3

As someone who's switched from Ruby to Python (for now, because the latter is far easier to teach, IMO) and also put significant time into learning R, because of how strong ggplot2 is...I was really surprised at the lack of Google results for "switching from python to r" -- or similarly phrased queries to find guides on how to go from Python to R...in fact, that particular query will bring up more results for R -> Py…

You know, I remember when I was trying my first language other than BASIC (VB6, perhaps? or maybe 1995 era JS?) and it bugged me that "x = y" wasn't the same as "y = x". Remembering it as "LET x = y" was helpful.

I've also seen this confused with folks who are just learning their first language and = is a common assignment operator in typical 'first languages' these days.

Re: Python, Machine Learning, and Language Wars (2015)

#10

Post by alceufc »

gtrubetskoy wrote: post #8

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention Anaconda, which is Python with all the things he lists pre-installed for you. I've been a fan for some time now: https://www.continuum.io/why-anaconda

I also think that Anaconda is great. However, I hope that in the future we could install numpy, matplotlib, jupyter, etc. just using pip.
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