[SciPy-user] matlab, idle, interactivity and teaching

[Stef Mientki]

hello Giorgio,

Giorgio Luciano wrote:
> Hello to all,
> I've thread that apperead some time ago on this list about matlab and 
> teaching.
>   
I'm not directly involved in teaching,
but my advise was asked if Labview would be a good replacement better
alternative for MatLab,
in education of medical students and for medical research.
When I discovered that Labview was certainly not a good replacement,
I first tried SciLab, but soon discovered Python, which with some tools,
looks very promising.
> I've discovered python recently  and translated part of the routine I 
> use in python (www.chemometrics.it).
> Some of my collegue asked me if I could show them how to use python. For 
> matlab user I guess the first problem is to setup everything, but I just 
> fixed it preparing a directory with all the package I need and a 
> matplotlibrc file for interactive mode + a shortcut for idle -n use.
>   
Which operating system are you using ?
Did you use Enthought edition ?
On windows, with just a few clicks, I had installed Enthought edition
and PyScripter,
and could start working, almost exactly as I was used in MatLab.
> The second problem is that people now  wants some bells and whistles of 
> matlab that I have to admit sometime can be very helpful for saving 
> time. The bells and whistles are about the workspace.
> It's difficult to cut and paste from gnumeric/excel (I generally use txt 
> file but it's no so immediate) and also there is no "visual" workspace. 
> I cannot succeed also in saving workspace (I know there is a function so 
> iosave.mat but I didn't manage easily hot to use it)
>   
>From my experience, MatLab workspace is somewhat better, but still 
very limited, if you've large data sets.
In the past I've several dedicated workspaces for MatLab to overcome
these limitations.
Pyscripter gives you almost the same workspace as MatLab,
and I wouldn't be surprised if you ask the creater of PyScripter,
to make something like the MatLab workspace, he'll do it.
> For overpass this problems I've tried to use QME-DEV which is in early 
> stage of development (alpha) but promise well.
> What people like of python/matplot/scipy
> -its free ;)
> -they like a lot the plotting style and capabilities (they find the png 
> and svg file very clear and accurate)
> -they like IDLE as editor (ehy it's has the same color of matlab ;) ! )
>   
and probably can print in color, which Matlab can't ;-)
> So my question is . Do you have a similar experience ?
> How do you help people in moving the first step ?
> do you use (and also does it exist) a more friendly environment than 
> IDLE except from QME-DEV.
>   
Yes, I think we've similar experiences here, and I even go one step
further, the MatLab workspace is also too limited.
I've looked at QME-DEV, and although it looks very promising,
> I know that this question may look silly, but in my opinion also how 
> much is user friendly a software is very important for getting new users.
> Cheers to all
> Giorgio
>
>
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>
>   

-- 
cheers,
Stef Mientki
http://pic.flappie.nl