Well it is the best pitch for numpy versus matlab I have read so far :) (and I 100% agree)
Xavier > On 1/7/2009 4:16 PM, David Cournapeau wrote: > > >> I think on recent versions of matlab, there is nothing you can do >> without modifying the code: matlab has some JIT compilation for loops, >> which is supposed to speed up those cases - at least, that's what is >> claimed by matlab. >> > > Yes it does. After using both for more than 10 years, my impression is this: > > - Matlab slicing creates new arrays. NumPy slicing creates views. NumPy > is faster and more memory efficient. > > - Matlab JIT compiles loops. NumPy does not. Matlab is faster for stupid > programmers that don't know how use slices. But neither Matlab nor > Python/NumPy is meant to be used like Java. > > - Python has psyco. It is about as good as Matlab's JIT. But psyco has > no knowledge of NumPy ndarrays. > > - Using Cython is easier than writing Matlab MEX files. > > - Python has better support for data structures, better built-in > structures (tuple, lists, dics, sets), and general purpose libraries. > Matlab has extensive numerical toolboxes that you can buy. > > - Matlab pass function arguments by value (albeit COW optimized). Python > pass references. This makes NumPy more efficient if you need to pass > large arrays or array slices. > > - Matlab tends to fragment the heap (hence the pack command). > Python/NumPy does not. This makes long-running processes notoriously > unstable on Matlab. > > - Matlab has some numerical libraries that are better. > > - I like the Matlab command prompt and IDE better. But its not enough to > make me want to use it. > > - Python is a proper programming language. Matlab is a numerical > scripting language - good for small scripts but not complex software > systems. > > > Sturla Molden > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Numpy-discussion mailing list > Numpy-discussion@scipy.org > http://projects.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion > _______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list Numpy-discussion@scipy.org http://projects.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
