Microsoft Q# is my choice

Today I am thinking to dig into the real quantum programming after learning the foundation part. There are three big players I was looking at on quantum programming framework/language. I hate to waste my time learning the framework or language itself. I want to focus on so I can focus on solving the problem. I have three choices:

• IBM, IBM Q
• Google Cirq
• Microsoft Q#

It seems IBM Q and Cirq are reusing the Python to provide a framework while Q# is a brand new language. It makes sense IBM and Google use Python as base as it has a good math library. However, I doubt this choice is the best choice. Like the GPU, quantum is special hardware. Cuda is a like C language but it has its own features. For quantum computing, it has a totally different way to compute. Therefore, I think the best way to use a new language, maybe it is just a DSL. C++ can be used to write a functional program, but the best way is still to use a functional programming language. 

Also, the examples from those three companies show a huge difference. Q# provides the best sample pack so far. It has a quantum foundation, matrix computation, and programming language. It will help me a lot to adopt this new stuff. 

The setup and debugging is the last thought. I had tried to step away from Microsoft stack; however, the debugging and the setup needs more time I expected. I was spoiled by double click and just working. 

Anyway, the current Q# shows good progress and the watch, star, and pull request number is bigger than other players. I will continue to focus on the quantum basics, like matrix and math part, anyway. 

SelfNotes: Quantum Algorithms

I believe the quantum computing is the key to enable real AI. No matter how complicated the AI algorithm can be, the fundamental computing power will make a real difference.

The huge difference between a classical computer and a quantum computer is so intriguing! It is the first time that math can come back to computer science and guide its evolution. Also, the quantum algorithm is the first time it introduces the internal parallelism. Those existing algorithms barely considered parallelism when it is designed. Now the quantum can change this situation!

The following are some notes about quantum algorithms. They are not related to any language implementation, it is just pure math. The only tool I want to use is "that piece of meat between my ears". :)

Automation with NodeJS-Puppeteer & Visual Studio Code

I saw many attempts to automate the processing using commercial software. However, I do not see this is necessary if this task is not that huge. When more and more application is moving to the web-based. Automation of the Chrome browser will automate most of the scenarios. Therefore, I feel 90% of those cases won't need to pay and still get the job done.

First, we need to set up IDE. There are three files needs to be updated and placed in the place. Please make sure you put launch.json and tasks.json are under .vscode folder. 

• launch.json: it is used to launch the application with predefined tasks such as Typescript build. 
• tsconfig.json is to used to build the application using Puppeteer
• tasks.json is to define the Typescript build process

The content of these three files

• launch.json

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{ // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes. // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes. // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387 "version": "0.2.0", "configurations": [ { "type": "node", "request": "launch", "name": "Launch Program", "sourceMaps": true, "preLaunchTask": "TSC", "program": "${workspaceFolder}/app.ts", "outFiles": [ "${workspaceFolder}/**/*.js" ] } ] }'

• tasks.json

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{ // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558 // for the documentation about the tasks.json format "version": "2.0.0", "tasks": [ { "label": "TSC", "type": "typescript", "tsconfig": "tsconfig.json", "problemMatcher": [ "$tsc" ], "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true } } ] }

• tsconfig.json

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{ "compilerOptions": { "target": "es5", "module": "commonjs", "lib": ["es2015", "dom"], "sourceMap": true }, "include": [ "src", "node_modules/@types/puppeteer/index.d.ts" ] }

The node_modules folder is created from the npm command provided by the NodeJS framework. The command to run is listed the following. The first line is to install TypeScript compiler which is not installed by default with VS Code. The second line is to install Puppeteer. The last line is to install the library for Typescript to work with Puppeteer.

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npm i -g typescript npm i --save puppeteer npm i --save-dev @types/puppeteer

The last file is the Puppeteer file:

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import * as puppeteer from 'puppeteer' (async () => { const browser = await puppeteer.launch(); const page = await browser.newPage(); await page.goto('http://www.google.com'); await page.screenshot({path: 'example.png'}); await browser.close(); })();