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Numerical Computing in Java?

Posted by Cliff on from the calculating-coffee dept.

Nightshade queries: "I work for a department in a big financial company that uses equal amounts of C++ and Java. For a variety of reasons, we've decided that Java is the future of the group because of all the benefits of the language (it's so easy to use compared to C++, we can use Eclipse, Ant, jUnit, etc). The problem is that we do a lot of numerical computing and Java has no operator overloading! Languages like C# have operator overloading and because of this company's like CenterSpace have popped up with some nice looking numerical libraries. Try to find numerical packages for Java and it'll be pretty tough. What have people done in terms of numerical computing in Java? We currently use the Jama and Colt libraries for matrices and complex numbers, but these have awkward interfaces without operator overloading and are incomplete (no support for things like symmetric matrices) so we're looking for better solutions. So should we bite the bullet and switch to C#? Should we use a pre-processor like JFront? What have other people done?"

2 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. These are not the languages you are looking for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Step away from the "one language fits all" mentality. The type of problem you're trying to solve has already been solved, so you can forget about Java and C++.

    Go get Matlab (or Mathematica or Mathcad/Maple). Matlab has a powerful scripting language that does exactly what you need, and you can download thousands of functions written for it. Or just hire me and I'll write a translator from Matlab to your favorite language. Oh wait: translators already exist, so nevermind.

    Also, why are you trying to confuse yourself (and future maintainers) with operator overloading in C++? It's just a Bad Idea (TM). Don't do it.

  2. Jython by FullMetalAlchemist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You might want to try Jython and the Numerical Python for Jython.
    I have not used either for a long time, but use plain Python and Numerical Python a lot; sure beats Matlab and Mathematica for most things. Right now for solving optimization problems with 10k+ s.t. constraints.