Asides on "The State of Julia for Scientific Machine Learning"

What credentials do these authors have, exactly?

I think my question is quite reasonable. It is unusual to call a dynamic language runtime from somewhere else. It is far more common to call libraries written using static typed languages from dynamic language runtimes.

What’s wrong with that as an observation?

It makes sense because traditionally the reason for implementing functions using a static typed language has been to improve performance.

My point being to make this the main (or one of the main) points of criticism doesn’t make a lot of sense.

I would also question the wisdom of viewing the authors of this paper as having some kind of authority.

Why should their arguments presented in the paper be beyond scrutiny simply because of who they are?

For the benefit of anyone reading this - my flagged / removed posts are in no way offensive. I simply questioned whether the arguments of the authors of the paper should be shielded from criticism due to some perceived notion of authority.

Your question about calling Julia from other languages was not the reason your post was hidden. It was hidden because you gratuitously described the paper as a way to increase bibliography metrics and nothing more. Here is the problematic sentence you wrote:

I wouldn’t pay too much attention to this paper. It looks like somebody felt like they needed to publish something to get their number of academic papers higher for the year end.

Regardless of who the authors are, this kind of claim is rude, especially without a shred of evidence to back it up.
As several people have already pointed out, we’re here to discuss content and science in a constructive and respectful manner.

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No, it’s not rude. This is simply a statement about how academia functions.

I’m an ex-academic.

As an ex-academic I personally feel I have the authority to comment on common practices in academia.

You can comment on general practices in academia. You cannot make unsubstantiated accusations towards specific authors. Especially when they are undergraduates and should be encouraged in their contributions rather than torpedoed.
Again, discussing the content of the paper is fine. But ad hominem attacks are not.

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I have unhidden some of the flagged posts of @world-peace, otherwise this conversation makes little sense. But I want to emphasize that the rules of this forum are all about respect, and this extends to people who may not be members or who may not ever read this conversation. Treat them the same way you would like to be treated on a forum which discusses your own papers.

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