From: Ralf Mueller Date: 2010-02-14T22:37:17+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby equivalents to SciPy, NumPy Alexander Jesner wrote: > Hello! > > I want to use Ruby to do some scientific computing for university and > was wondering, if there are any gems or language intern features that > could help me to accomplish this tasks. > > Some of my colleagues use Python and they can use NumPy or orther SciPy > features to do computations and produce graphic output just like in MATLAB. > Are there any equivalents for Ruby? > > Hi Alexander, I have quite good experience with the bindings to Gnu Scientific Library (GSL: http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/, rb-gsl: http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/). there is also another bindings package: http://ruby-gsl.sourceforge.net/ As you may know, narray (http://narray.rubyforge.org/SPEC.en) is a fast multidimensional array implementation, and it is interoperable with rb-gsl (http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/narray.html). If you install 'plotutils' and 'gnuplot' (+ its ruby gem), you will be able to use GSL's plotting facilities (http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/vector.html#3.17, graph -> plotutils, plot -> gnuplot). After all, it felt like using matlab to me. Having a ruby as a fully features language by your side makes it even more powerfull. If you're looking for statistical analysis, rsruby (http://rubyforge.org/projects/rsruby/), ruby bindings to R. Another important issue is IO. If you have CSV-like files, GSL can read the directly, or you can let ruby to that. If you have netcdf (http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/, http://ruby.gfd-dennou.org/products/ruby-netcdf/) , grib (http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/ruby-grib/) or hdf5 (http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/), you have to look for libraries. best regards ralf