Re: octave to matlab conversion

[A S Hodel]

On Oct 7, 2005, at 8:23 PM, Joe Koski wrote:
> My opinion is that the perfect mat2oct or oct2mat converter (other 
> than a
> knowledgeable human) will never exist because of major differences 
> between
> the MATLAB toolboxes and octave-forge. There will never be a good 
> one-to-one
> equivalency. Both collections will continue to have their strengths and
> weaknesses.

I firmly agree with Joe here.  MATLAB and Octave are both moving 
targets.  How many people have upgraded from Matlab 4 to 5, 5 to 6, and 
6 to 7, only to discover that some formerly functional m-files or 
compiled mex-functions have to be rewritten?  Even in Octave, we see 
changes from time to time (e.g., deprecation of gset).  If such a 
converter were written, it would require regular maintenance as 
features are added to the two systems.

I use Octave and MATLAB when teaching my classes in electrical 
engineering.  With the aid of Octave-forge, I am able to write scripts 
that will work in both systems.  Nevertheless, at some point in a given 
project one may need to make a commitment to one or the other.  That's 
where the strengths and weaknesses discussed above come into play.

A S Hodel, Associate Professor, http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~hodelas



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