James Sungjin Kim wrote: > Robert Kern wrote: > >>... Once you move outside of that box and start doing real >>programming, Python (with Numeric, ipython, matplotlib, scipy, et al.) >>beats MATLAB handily. > > As one who is really newbie on Python, In MATLAB we can represent the > codes for the matrix manipulation as really like mathematical forms, e.g., > > MATLAB> H = U*D*V' > > It definitely makes the science programmer easier and faster to write > their codes.
Careful there. That's a huge generalization. Most scientific programmers don't only do matrix manipulations. MATLAB makes matrix manipulation easier, not writing scientific programs in general. Like I said, if you're only doing exactly what MATLAB was designed for, interactive manipulation of matrices, then MATLAB will be easier. MATLAB pays a price for that convenience, though. Its facilities for writing more general programs (by which I mean anything beyond "H = U*D*V'"; that includes most "scientific" programs) are severely lacking. Once a MATLAB program gets large enough that it doesn't fit into one file, it's unreadable, and if I'm given one that I need to read/use/modify for my research, I refuse. Life is just too damn short. I'd rather rewrite the thing myself in Python; indeed, I *have* on a few occasions. I can do a whole lot more in Python much easier. If that means I have to do H = dot(U, dot(D, transpose(V))) or (if U, D, V are scipy.mat() instances) H = U*D*V.T then I'm more than happy with that tradeoff. The small syntactic conveniences MATLAB provides are dwarfed by the intrinsic power of Python. -- Robert Kern [EMAIL PROTECTED] "In the fields of hell where the grass grows high Are the graves of dreams allowed to die." -- Richard Harter -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
