[ANN] mlabwrap-1.0final

[Alexander Schmolck]

Stef Mientki <S.Mientki-nospam at mailbox.kun.nl> writes:

> Alexander Schmolck wrote:
> > I'm pleased to finally announce mlabwrap-1.0:
> > Project website
> 
> > ---------------
> > <http://mlabwrap.sourceforge.net/>
> > Description
> 
> > -----------
> > Mlabwrap-1.0 is a high-level python to matlab(tm) bridge that makes calling
> 
> > matlab functions from python almost as convenient as using a normal python
> > library. It is available under a very liberal license (BSD/MIT) and should
> > work on all major platforms and (non-ancient) python and matlab versions and
> > either numpy or Numeric (Numeric support will be dropped in the future).
> >
> 
> 
> Probably quit a large and nice job, to embed MatLab in Python.

Actually, it's not much code -- mlabwrap.py is less than 500 lines of code.

> But, I've the idea I'm missing something ... ... coming from MatLab, a few
> months ago I tried Python, ... and at the moment I've decided to move
> completely from MatLab to Python. All new programs will be written in Python
> and the old programs will be translated.
> 
> Is my decision wrong ?

Depends on your circumstances, but in many cases just switching to a different
language and rewriting everything from scratch (possibly even at a single go,
if there are many interdependencies) isn't practical. Mlabwrap help here,
because it allows you to either migrate piecemeal or mix and match (i.e.
mostly use python, resorting to matlab libraries where necessary).
 
> What can do MatLab, that can't be done in Python (SciPy) ?
> (Ok I accept there's no SimuLink/PowerSim).

There are plenty of commercial and free libraries and environments for matlab
that have seen considerable development by domain experts don't have a
comparable python equivalent. I'm currently sitting in a cafe in Berkeley,
because researchers at the universities of Berkeley and Cambridge are
interested in doing their neuroimaging analysis in python, but still need to
interface to existing matlab packages like SPM.

> Both environments can create any program you like.

Not really.

> If MatLab is your standard / favorite why not stick to MatLab ?

Because matlab is much limited as a programming language once you stray
outside linear algebra. Many people also seem to be unhappy about licencing
issues . Finally, how often did matlab crash on you? And python?
 
> Please enlighten me.

My pleasure.

'as