facilitating automatic differentiation

[Norbert Nemec]

Do you mean in the sense of symbolic algebraic transformations at 
compile time? D would be the prime candidate for that.

If you just want to go for a small solution for your specific problem, 
it should actually be quite straightforward to hack up.

A more generic approach like a library should be a fascinating project. 
I could imagine that this kind of project would lead you very quickly 
very deep into the design philosophy of the language. I can only 
encourage you to try it out.




On 20.10.2011 12:13, Dominic Jones wrote:
> I have worked on differentiating algorithms written in Fortran 90/95
> using Tapenade (http://www-sop.inria.fr/tropics/tapenade.html) with
> moderate success.
>
> For more expressive languages the source transformation process
> rapidly tends towards the impossible. However, I speculate that in D
> some of its language features (e.g. mixin, scope) may facilitate
> differentiation without recourse to an external tool.
>
> I don't know D well enough, and I am not familiar with the possible
> trickery that can be done with such a language, but if there is
> someone who does have some understanding of automatic
> differentiation and is competent with D, I'd be very interested in
> your comments as to whether or not such a pursuit is worthwhile.
>
> Thank you
> Dominic Jones