MATLAB
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
MATLAB, short for "Matrix Laboratory", is a computer program by The MathWorks which allows one to easily manipulate matrices, plot functionss and data, and implement algorithms in its own internal programming language. It runs on Windows, MacOS, Linux and Unix and is widely used in the teaching of linear algebra and numerical analysis. The language was invented by Cleve Moler in the late 1970s.
Comparison with Mathematica
MATLAB's primary competitor is Mathematica. MATLAB is more convenient for numerical analysis and linear algebra, and is frequently used in the engineering community. Mathematica on the other hand has superior symbolic manipulation, making it popular among physicists. Another fundamental difference is that while MATLAB accepts scripts in a language very close to C, Mathematica uses its own functional language
Alternatives
Free software alternatives to MATLAB include GNU Octave and Scilab, which have similar syntax. There is also LabVIEW, a graphical programming language which, as it is graphical instead of text-based, requires no syntax at all. Another free alternative is Python in combination with libraries like Numeric Python and SciPy. Rlab is also a free MATLAB-like scientific programming environment.
The R programming language provides a similar environment to matlab for data manipulation and graphics. See http://cran.r-project.org/doc/contrib/R-and-octave-2.txt for a list of translations between matlab commands and their equivalent in R.
External links