Re: Future = (Vpython + Glowscript) | Glowscript | ???

I agree that using units can be a good thing, especially if one gets
an error message when trying to add 5 kilograms to 3 meters. However,
among the very many academics I know who use VPython for research or
educational purposes, no one else has ever asked for VPython to
support physical units. (This may be a lack of imagination on their
part, of course.)

I judge that implementing units in VPython would be a very major
undertaking, and it would have to be done very carefully so as not to
affect the execution speed of programs that don't use units. In fact,
Kevin Karplus commented that Python with units is rather slow. There
are hundreds of details that would have to be addressed in the C++
code, not to mention that numpy and the Boost libraries don't handle
units.

Unfortunately, very few people have ever contributed to the
development and maintenance of the central C++ component of VPython,
possibly because it is multithreaded C++ with connections to Boost
libraries, numpy, and OpenGL, which means that it can be daunting. I
personally see far more to do than I can accomplish within the domain
of wants and needs that are important to all VPython users. That means
that someone(s) would have to step forward and take on what is
probably a very big task if units are to be supported in VPython.

Bruce Sherwood

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