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Commit 6bba7886 authored by Pierre Augier's avatar Pierre Augier
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Carl Friedrich's improvements

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1 merge request!5First modifications to take care of the editor remarks
......@@ -36,9 +36,9 @@
We read with attention the comment by Zwart on **The ecological impact of
high-performance computing in astrophysics** \cite{Zwart2020}. We fully agree
with its take-home message: scientists should be mindfull of their carbon
footprint. One of the proposed solution is to avoid the Python programming
language. We advocate that it would be counterproductive and that scientific
with its take-home message: scientists should be mindful of their carbon
footprint. One of the proposed solutions is to avoid the Python programming
language. We advocate that this would be counterproductive and that scientific
programs written in Python can be efficient and energy friendly. We argue that
advancement of compiler technology, human factors and education are much more
important than choice of language.
......@@ -129,8 +129,9 @@
the implementation labelled "Julia" is comparable with the "Pythran" and
"Numba" implementations and could have been written by scientists with similar
skills. We did not include a Julia implementation similar to "Pythran naive"
because it is inefficient. "Julia optimized" and "Julia parallel" have
been proposed by Julia users after a long discussion on Julia forum.
because it is inefficient. "Julia optimized" and "Julia parallel" have been
proposed by Julia users after a long discussion on a [Julia
forum](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nbabel-nbody-integrator-speed-up/).
The four points close to the bottom-left corner correspond to two parallel
implementations using Pythran+OpenMP and Julia executed using 6 and 12 CPU
......@@ -144,7 +145,7 @@
Our work shows that the performance of scientific programs depends less on
languages than on time spent on optimization and developer skills to correctly
use the right tools. This benchmark demonstrates that dynamic languages like
use the right tools. These benchmarks demonstrate that dynamic languages like
Python can actually be good solutions to easily obtain good performance while
retaining simplicity and readability. We think that minimizing the ecological
impact of scientific computing is mainly limited by human factors: time, work,
......
......@@ -2,14 +2,15 @@
Thank you for reading our draft and for your suggestions.
We agree that our opening paragraph misconstrued the article Zwart (2020). We
tried to be simple and short but we forgot to mention its most important
message which is indeed that we should be mindful of the environmental impact
of our computations! However, the focus on the choice of the languages and on
the danger "interpreted scripting languages" and in particular Python is also
an important aspect of Zwart comment. Python is mentionned in the abstract, in
Figures 1 and 3, all along section 3 "The role of language on the ecology" and
in the conclusions. We rewrote the first paragraph which is now:
We agree with your suggestion to focus more on the commonalities between our
position and that of Zwart. We tried to be simple and short but we left the
most import message implicit, which is indeed that we should be mindful of the
environmental impact of our computations! However, the focus on the choice of
the languages and on the danger "interpreted scripting languages" and in
particular Python is also an important aspect of Zwart's comment. Python is
mentioned in the abstract, in Figures 1 and 3, all along section 3 "The role of
language on the ecology" and in the conclusions. We rewrote the first paragraph
which is now:
"We read with attention the comment by Zwart on **The ecological impact of
high-performance computing in astrophysics** \cite{Zwart2020}. We fully agree
......@@ -13,11 +14,11 @@
"We read with attention the comment by Zwart on **The ecological impact of
high-performance computing in astrophysics** \cite{Zwart2020}. We fully agree
with its take-home message: scientists should be mindfull of their carbon
footprint. One of the proposed solution is to avoid the Python programming
language. We advocate that it would be counterproductive and that scientific
with its take-home message: scientists should be mindful of their carbon
footprint. One of the proposed solutions is to avoid the Python programming
language. We advocate that this would be counterproductive and that scientific
programs written in Python can be efficient and energy friendly. We argue that
advancement of compiler technology, human factors and education are much more
important than choice of language."
Regarding the length of our text, we tried to reduce it by rewording and
......@@ -19,16 +20,16 @@
programs written in Python can be efficient and energy friendly. We argue that
advancement of compiler technology, human factors and education are much more
important than choice of language."
Regarding the length of our text, we tried to reduce it by rewording and
cutting unnecessary words. You suggested to remove the first half of the
paragraph on compiled/interpreted language and JIT/AOT compilation. We
decreased the length of this paragraph but we think that it is actually useful
to recall that languages are not "interpreted" or "compiled". Only
implementations of languages interpret or/and compile code. This distinction
between "interpreted languages" and "compiled languages" is very common and is
at the base of Zwart conclusions on Python. Moreover, we anyway need to
introduce the acronyms JIT and AOT. We now write:
clarifying the text. You suggested to remove the first half of the paragraph on
compiled/interpreted language and JIT/AOT compilation. We decreased the length
of this paragraph but we think that it is actually useful to recall that
languages themselves are not "interpreted" or "compiled". Only implementations
of languages interpret or/and compile code. This distinction between
"interpreted languages" and "compiled languages" is very common and is at the
base of Zwart conclusions on Python. Moreover, we anyway need to introduce the
acronyms JIT and AOT. We now write:
"Zwart (2020) characterizes languages as being “interpreted” or “compiled” but
these categories make sense only for specific implementations. Some
......
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