> I will always wish that Python weren't the lingua franca of sorts for machine learning.
Absolutely ... I feel like the ML world is caught in a strong local minima with Python: it gets people on board due to the exploratory ease, but then the effort of learning a different system once they already understand things in that ecosystem is just too great. Unfortunately it is highly suboptimal for writing highly structured, complex code.
You should have a look at DL4J and ND4J if these things frustrate you. Particularly with a dynamic JVM language like Groovy they give you something close to the best of both worlds.
Absolutely ... I feel like the ML world is caught in a strong local minima with Python: it gets people on board due to the exploratory ease, but then the effort of learning a different system once they already understand things in that ecosystem is just too great. Unfortunately it is highly suboptimal for writing highly structured, complex code.
You should have a look at DL4J and ND4J if these things frustrate you. Particularly with a dynamic JVM language like Groovy they give you something close to the best of both worlds.