Artificial Intelligence Project - What language should I go for?

Question

Hi, I am a computer science student and I am going to work on an artificial intelligence project which will compose a musical tune according to the genre and mood inputs. Are the algorithms to be used for this project likely to be very resource-consuming? Would it make any difference (in terms of speed) if I choose to go with Java rather than C++? (Note : I know only these two languages and I am more comfortable with Java than C++.)

NB : Sorry for my poor English. If someone can, please clean up this post wherever necessary. Thanks.

Answer 1

Go with Java since you are more comfortable with it. That will allow you to concentrate on solving the problem, not the programming. Maybe C++ would end with a faster program, maybe not, but getting there will be slower and you don't categorically state that the program must be blazingly fast.

Regards

Mark

Answer 2

In my mind, the language mostly associated with AI is Lisp.

See the answers to Why is Lisp used for AI? - top voted mentions this was the case in the 60s and 70s, but these days dynamic languages are used (ruby, python and such).

Answer 3

It looks to me like you're at the proof-of-concept stage of your project. I'd use whatever language your most comfortable with. Well written Java code will run a lot faster then poorly written C.

Answer 4

The resource consumption is way more influenced by the algorithmic approach than the language chosen. If you are comfortable with Java, program your application in that language - even though a C++ implementation might be 10% faster.

That being said, you might be interested with Artificial Intelligence API's for Java.

Answer 5

I did a similar AI project a couple of years ago. I don't know what solution you will be implementing, but AI programs can generally be both resource consuming and may take a long time to run, but on the other hand, you'll need a language you're familiar with to get it done in time.

Therefore, my advice is that if you feel you know C++ (or C), go with one of them. If you don't know them, then consider carefully the time you will need to invest in learning a new language before choosing.

Answer 6

If you're starting from scratch, use whatever you know best. If you want to use established libraries to speed up development, you might want to investigate that first - but Java is certain to have some.

In your shoes, I'd pick Java for sure.

Answer 7

I would use Common Lisp for a project like this. If you don't know Lisp, I would learn it for this type of project. It would be a great learning experience and since you are a CS student, it will only help you. Lisp is a language that can be a real eye opener.

Answer 8

My advice is design everything you need first, every ADT, every algorithm class, hierarchy, everything. This kind of project/programming could be really hard to design in C/C++ family of languages, maybe you could choose other language with less string typed philosophy. So i encourage you with using a language designed for this kind of problem, better suited to your application, functional paradigm ex: LISP, logical paradigm ex: PROLOG or something like that.

Answer 9

My 3rd year dissertation project was an implementation of heuristics for cellular network radio frequency allocation. I chose Java over C++ because it allowed me to visualize the results much easier than if I'd used C++. I don't believe the performance would have been significantly different in C++ - the complexity factor of your algos is going to be the biggest factor probably.