On the Rise

Julia [1] is a high-level, high-performance, general-purpose programming language. The “high level” refers to its expressive syntax, advanced data structures, and sophisticated type system, which are features that allow the programmer to solve complex problems with compact, readable programs [2]. High performance is achieved with a unique just-in-time compilation system that turns high-level code into native machine instructions on any of Julia’s many supported architectures, including GPUs. Julia is a general-purpose language because it’s convenient to use in any problem domain. The only areas in which Julia might not be an ideal choice, because of the overhead of compiling, are embedded and real-time applications (although even this may change [3] in the future). Julia was originally envisioned as a new language [4] for scientific and technical computing. Since its relatively…