4 ms·

Nice, how does it compare to commercial tools or Python ? the pros and the cons ?

by aikah 10y ago

stinos 10y ago
anecdote: last time I tried Octave, like half a year ago, it didn't want to plot anything and had to be killed after issuing a plot command. Previous time I tried it, maybe a year ago, I didn't have that problem but it didn't run all my matlab stuff (nor did I expect it to). So Octave for us was basically: either a maintainance burden if we want to keep all Matlab stuff running on Octave as well, or else a seperate codebase, combined with possibly severe problems in the basics; which might be easy to solve but do require time looking for a solution. So we switched to Python then (requirements for this particular project were just pretty basic line graphs) and didn't look back.
IshKebab 10y ago
It's a lot more suited to mathematical problems than Python. Python wasn't designed for matrix manipulation like Matlab was so the syntax isn't nearly as nice. Matlab also has a huge library of maths functions built in - even really obscure ones. Finally Matlab has a nice GUI and plotting support built in which Python doesn't have. Basically Matlab is almost strictly better than Python. The only advantage Python have that I can see are: a) it has better support for non-maths functions - good luck doing OpenGL in native Matlab (although it does easily interface with C++ and Java), and b) it is free; Matlab costs a lot, although they did actually release an affordable 'personal' edition. Octave is basically a Matlab clone. It's slower, has a less polished GUI (plotting is especially buggy) and is less comprehensive.
- dorfsmay 10y ago
  Isn't Julia a better alternative than Python if you're doing math these days?
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
    Julia's gotten a little bit of buzz the last few years, but python's got the whole rest of the ecosystem.
- cossatot 10y ago
  What mathematical functionality do you find in Octave that's lacking in the Python ecosystem?
  - sampo 10y ago
    For a lot of "special" or "famous" matrices listed here https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/v4.0.1/Famous-Matrices.html https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/v4.0.1/Famous-Matric... it is not so easy to find whether a numpy equivalent exists, and in which module. Usually the first page of google results is not very helpful.
- stinos 10y ago
  c) Python is a rather nice language to program in, matlab feels archaic/verbose/... and misses a lot of things of more modern languages. It's good at math, but there it sort of ends. Also because it's aimed at math, good luck finding tutorials teaching programming basics, best practices, design patterns. Likely the reason why 10000 line files with up to 20 indent levels are no exception in the world of academia (ok the trainwreck of an editor might have to do with that as well). I have no proof of course, just a feeling this would occur less easily with Python. Ok and Python doesn't have numpy/plotting literally built-in but if you start with Miniconda or so you get one package which has it all.

Nice, how does it compare to commercial tools or Python ? the pros and the cons ?

by aikah 10y ago

Nice, how does it compare to commercial tools or Python ? the pros and the cons ?

anecdote: last time I tried Octave, like half a year ago, it didn't want to plot anything and had to be killed after issuing a plot command. Previous time I tried it, maybe a year ago, I didn't have that problem but it didn't run all my matlab stuff (nor did I expect it to). So Octave for us was basically: either a maintainance burden if we want to keep all Matlab stuff running on Octave as well, or else a seperate codebase, combined with possibly severe problems in the basics; which might be easy to solve but do require time looking for a solution. So we switched to Python then (requirements for this particular project were just pretty basic line graphs) and didn't look back.

IshKebab 10y ago

It's a lot more suited to mathematical problems than Python. Python wasn't designed for matrix manipulation like Matlab was so the syntax isn't nearly as nice. Matlab also has a huge library of maths functions built in - even really obscure ones. Finally Matlab has a nice GUI and plotting support built in which Python doesn't have. Basically Matlab is almost strictly better than Python. The only advantage Python have that I can see are: a) it has better support for non-maths functions - good luck doing OpenGL in native Matlab (although it does easily interface with C++ and Java), and b) it is free; Matlab costs a lot, although they did actually release an affordable 'personal' edition. Octave is basically a Matlab clone. It's slower, has a less polished GUI (plotting is especially buggy) and is less comprehensive.

dorfsmay 10y ago
Isn't Julia a better alternative than Python if you're doing math these days?
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
  Julia's gotten a little bit of buzz the last few years, but python's got the whole rest of the ecosystem.
cossatot 10y ago
What mathematical functionality do you find in Octave that's lacking in the Python ecosystem?
- sampo 10y ago
  For a lot of "special" or "famous" matrices listed here https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/v4.0.1/Famous-Matrices.html https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/v4.0.1/Famous-Matric... it is not so easy to find whether a numpy equivalent exists, and in which module. Usually the first page of google results is not very helpful.
stinos 10y ago
c) Python is a rather nice language to program in, matlab feels archaic/verbose/... and misses a lot of things of more modern languages. It's good at math, but there it sort of ends. Also because it's aimed at math, good luck finding tutorials teaching programming basics, best practices, design patterns. Likely the reason why 10000 line files with up to 20 indent levels are no exception in the world of academia (ok the trainwreck of an editor might have to do with that as well). I have no proof of course, just a feeling this would occur less easily with Python. Ok and Python doesn't have numpy/plotting literally built-in but if you start with Miniconda or so you get one package which has it all.