Julia as a Second Language

Learn the awesome Julia programming language by building fun projects like a rocket launcher, a password keeper, and a battle simulator.

Julia as a Second Language covers:

• Data types like numbers, strings, arrays, and dictionaries
• Immediate feedback with Julia’s read-evaluate-print-loop (REPL)
• Simplify code interactions with multiple dispatch
• Sharing code using modules and packages
• Object-oriented and functional programming styles

Julia as a Second Language introduces Julia to readers with a beginning-level knowledge of another language like Python or JavaScript. You’ll learn by coding engaging hands-on projects that encourage you to apply what you’re learning immediately. Don’t be put off by Julia’s reputation as a scientific programming language—there’s no data science or numerical computing knowledge required. You can get started with what you learned in high school math classes.

About the Technology

Originally designed for high-performance data science, Julia has become an awesome general purpose programming language. It offers developer-friendly features like garbage collection, dynamic typing, and a flexible approach to concurrency and distributed computing. It is the perfect mix of simplicity, flexibility and performance.

About the Book

Julia as a Second Language introduces Julia by building on your existing programming knowledge. You’ll see Julia in action as you create a series of interesting projects that guide you from Julia’s basic syntax through its advanced features. Master types and data structures as you model a rocket launch. Use dictionaries to interpret Roman numerals. Use Julia’s unique multiple dispatch feature to send knights and archers into a simulated battle. Along the way, you’ll even compare the object-oriented and functional programming styles–Julia supports both!

What’s Inside

• Data types like numbers, strings, arrays, and dictionaries
• Immediate feedback with Julia’s read-evaluate-print-loop (REPL)
• Simplify code interactions with multiple dispatch
• Share code using modules and packages

About the Reader

For readers comfortable with another programming language like Python, JavaScript, or C#.

About the Author

Erik Engheim is a writer, conference speaker, video course author, and software developer.

Table of Contents

PART 1 – BASICS

1 Why Julia?

2 Julia as a calculator

3 Control flow

4 Julia as a spreadsheet

5 Working with text

6 Storing data in dictionaries

PART 2 – TYPES

7 Understanding types

8 Building a rocket

9 Conversion and promotion

10 Representing unknown values

PART 3 – COLLECTIONS

11 Working with strings

12 Understanding Julia collections

13 Working with sets

14 Working with vectors and matrices

PART 4 – SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

15 Functional programming in Julia

16 Organizing and modularizing your code

PART 5 – GOING IN DEPTH

17 Input and output

18 Defining parametric types

About the Author

Erik Engheim is a writer, conference speaker, video course author and software developer. He has spent much of his career developing 3D modeling software for reservoir modeling and simulation in the Norwegian gas and oil industry. Erik also spent several years as an iOS and Android developer.