Matlab vs Python (was RE: Discussion: Introducing new operators f

[johann at physics.berkeley.edu.bbs]

Charles Boncelet writes:

>> - that many problems can be reduced to matrix operations is
>> a non-argument, since the same is true of functional/
>> procedural/oo/predicate programming.

> I agree, but there is a big userbase waiting for an alternative
> to the $$ Matlab.

Octave is already there as a free alternative, so I doubt python will
attract many of those people.

Personally, I find that the matrix-orientation of Matlab makes it
harder to get things done.  I more often have 3 or higher dimensional
arrays than I have plain old 2D matrices, so I'd rather see the more
general Numeric Python syntax than any over-specialized matrix code.

When you're contracting a 4-tensor with a vector, you almost need an
index-based notation.

As it is, the only things missing from NumPy is an easy spelling of
matrix-matrix multiplication, and if you really need that, you can
just define your own class to do it.

--
Johann Hibschman                           johann at physics.berkeley.edu