Python and Matlab are two different beasts, and it's not really fair to compare both of them side-by-side. If you want to Get Stuff Done (tm), then I say go ahe

Python and Matlab are two different beasts, and it's not really fair to compare both of them side-by-side. If you want to Get Stuff Done (tm), then I say go ahead and use Matlab. I've used it for computer vision projects in the past, and it was good enough for me. Sure, my algorithms took forever to complete, but Matlab is a scripting language not optimized for speed (though I think you can compile .m files). But if you want to learn how to program properly, then I would stay away from Matlab. The language has some weird design choices that most programming languages do not follow (e.g. indicies start at 1 in Matlab instead of 0 everywhere else; syntax for setting up functions are odd; and other deeper issues). Go learn Python instead. Once you know Python, learning Matlab is super easy. And it seems that Python is gaining more attention in the academic world. I know it is used heavily in computational bio, natural language processing, and other places. http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/ http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/ http://vnoel.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/bye-matlab-hello-python-thanks-sage/ http://vnoel.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/bye-matlab-hello-pytho... http://www.sagemath.org/ http://www.sagemath.org/