How heavily is this tied to Python? Can a ruby/JS hacker with no python experien...

FraaJad · on March 18, 2011

Come on young rubyist. embrace the dark side. You will like it. /jk

I went through the fist couple of chapters and all the python code I've seen so far is quite close to "pseudo-code" than deeply-idiomatic Python.

Considering the fact that the Prof. also wrote "How To Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with {Python/Java/C++}", you can be rest assured that he knows how not to trip up students with clever syntax.

verysimple · on March 19, 2011

Come on young rubyist. embrace the dark side. You will like it. /jk

I adopted Python because I was told Ruby is the dark side. oO

halostatue · on March 18, 2011

Probably.

  % gem install rubypython
  % wget http://thinkstats.com/Pmf.py
  % irb
  >> require 'rubypython'
  => true
  >> RubyPython.start
  => true 
  >> sys = RubyPython.import 'sys'
  => <module 'sys' (built-in)> 
  >> sys.path.append '.'
  => None 
  >> Pmf = RubyPython.import 'Pmf'
  => <module 'Pmf' from './Pmf.py'> 
  >> hist = Pmf.MakeHistFromList([1, 2, 2, 3, 5])
  => <Pmf.Hist object at 0x7f6681a4f490> 
  >> hist.Freq(2)
  => 2 
  >> hist.Freq(4)
  => 0 
  >> hist.Values()
  => [1, 2, 3, 5] 
  >> RubyPython.stop
  => true

The above adapted from part of section 2.4 (http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkstats/html/book003.html#to...).

scott_s · on March 18, 2011

Python examples are embedded in the text, explaining what is being done. If you're familiar with Ruby, you should be able to do an on-the-fly mapping. But, it's easy to see for yourself: http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkstats/thinkstats.pdf

AllenDowney · on March 19, 2011

I tried to keep the code simple -- no Python esoterica, only a few objects. So it should be easy to pick up the Python as you go along.

But let me know whether that turns out to be true.

phren0logy · on March 19, 2011

Just wanted say thanks for all you contribute. Your textbook manifesto is inspirational. Also, I wanted to offer some encouragement on your Complexity book. It looks lke it's off to a great start.

Any chance we'll see a Clojure version of any of your books? It seems to be shaping up as a good choice for scientific computing.

AllenDowney · on March 19, 2011

Thanks! I am hoping to get back to the Complexity book soon. I want to finish the section on agent-based modeling (and I need to remove some of the stats material that I poached for Think Stats).

Clojure looks interesting, but I don't know much about it, so I probably won't do anything with it soon. But part of the reason I use free licenses is so that other people can adapt my books.

Nicholas Monje is working on Think OCaml (http://thinkocaml.com); that might be the best version to translate into Clojure.