MATLAB2Python

[Edward C. Jones]

Cameron Laird wrote:
> In article <D2Xjc.28117$Qc.1080799 at twister1.libero.it>,
> Sarge  <sarge at arena.invalid> wrote:
> 
>>Hi, everybody!
>>I'm a moderately experienced programmer in Matlab, and looking for a 
>>free computational language (Matlab is *REALLY* expensive for an 
>>individual, like me).
>>I came across Python (actually Scipy) and immediately felt 
>>comfortable with the interface and syntax.
>>I'm still a newbe, so, before attempting a serious work on it, I'd 
>>like to hear any opinion about migration from Matlab to Python, and 
>>also a rough comparison between these two languages.
> 
> 			.
> 			.
> 			.
> 1.  I run into quite a few people making a transition
>     from Matlab to Python; invariably they say that
>     the change is working out better than they expected.
>     Very roughly speaking, Python allows for more
>     abstraction and expressive power that expands their
>     horizons beyond what they achieved with Matlab.
> 2.  They're different, though, and Matlab certainly
>     boasts a massive collection of special-purpose
>     add-ons that will take a while to replace.  Also,
>     for some functions, Matlab is much faster (and for
>     others, Python is much faster).
> 3.  For the most conservative transition, you'll want
>     to learn about Octave.
> 
> A reference to Octave and more appear at <URL:
> http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.programming/open_source_science.html >.

Also check out numarray and PIL.