D for project in computational chemistry

[bachmeier via Digitalmars-d]

On Tuesday, 4 August 2015 at 19:40:30 UTC, jmh530 wrote:

> Wrt static typing, I don't think the issue is about catching 
> bugs in Matlab. I just haven't had much an issue with mixing up 
> types in Matlab. I can see the arguments about static typing 
> and ahead of time compilation for performance, but that's less 
> important for prototyping. One good thing about dynamic typing 
> is that it allows for easier manipulation of matrices.

For me, the big win in prototyping comes from the ability to 
easily make significant changes to my program. With D, I am able 
to give the compiler a bunch of information about the types of 
data I'm working with, and the compiler handles all the details 
for me, better than a good research assistant. If I change the 
function to take different input or return different output, I 
don't have to look through 500 lines of code to make sure I'm 
keeping everything consistent.

A couple of things that might make D more pleasant for me are:
- I do a lot of simulation-related things, where the inputs and 
outputs can change a lot as I figure out how I want to do things, 
and
- I use R. R was invented down the hall from C, and AFAICT, the C 
and R guys were believers that silent casting and undefined 
behavior are the foundation of a good programming language.