Re: "Why Octave"

[Juan Pablo Carbajal]

On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 3:30 AM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Feb 2, 2013, at 8:37 PM, address@hidden wrote:
>
>> I am Taban,
>>
>> Ben, i am a Electronics engineering student and i am studying on image 
>> proccessing for my project. I researched something about comparing matlab 
>> and octave. So appereantly matlab is faster, have much more toolboxes, well 
>> documented etc. But it is expensive. I am a software developer also, and i 
>> like free software philosophy. I want to use Octave.
>>
>> So can you give me a leg to stand on, give me a few reason can be answer to 
>> question that "Why Octave?" or Why are you using Octave instead of Matlab ?
>>
>> Thanks
>
> I''ve cc'd the help list for Octave.  You'll likely get a lot of opinions for 
> why others use Octave.
>
> I use Octave because I enjoy contributing to its development and its GNU 
> license ensures I'll be able to continue.   I also favor the comfort of 
> knowing that my use of Octave isn't contingent on a financial obligation.
>
> Even so, I am also a Matlab user (for work).
>
> Ben
>
> _______________________________________________
> Help-octave mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/listinfo/help-octave

Hi Taban,

I am a physicist, at the beginig I switched from the eternal C/C++ to
Matlab and really like it. I was a happy user for a couple of years.
Then I bumped into problems like functions that once where in core
suddenly came into packages (that I did not have, nor the university
was willing to pay). I started looking for alternatives to these
functions and found octave (to be true I meet octave first in 2001,
but it did not catch me). After I used it for a while, and discovered
the freedom and power of free software (like really, do what you want,
but keep it free!) I couldn't leave it anymore and I totally abandoned
Matlab. For example, do you know how easy is to bring all your C/C++
code to working seamlessly into Octave? Believe me, TRIVIAL.

There are things that Octave hasn't got yet, e.g. we are lying behind
in GUI matters (not for too long, it seems) and there is no simulink
equivalent (though t would be great to blend Octave with Scilab to
overcome the issue). Also, Octave is Linux friendly though it works in
most OS (even Android nowadays). Of course, the more we are helping
the better things will get.

I am myself a command line person (went and come back from the IDE
fever) and I love Octave. If you are too much into GUI you may find it
hard at the beginning.

I hope you like this and you join us.

See you later space coder...

JPi