Re: Matlab quirks

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 28 March 2012 02:45, ahowe42 <address@hidden> wrote:
> Even though I've converted to Octave, I still have a lot of respect for
> Mathworks and MATLAB.

I don't. They've done far too much damage to scientific computing.
They've conditioned people into believing that being unable to fix
your own code and being unable to see all the details of how something
works is the way things should be. They've employed abusive business
practices. They've created a horrible language and repeatedly refuse
to fix it (every Matlab user I know eventually gets frustrated with
the one-visible-function-per-file restriction, or the inability to
index temporaries). They've obscured better alternatives. They've lied
to their users. They refuse to publicly document their bugs. They
change the language around so we have to keep chasing around it if we
want people to help people to be free to do computing on their own
terms, not on the terms of an external company.

Good people work in Mathworks, however, but I think they're playing
for the wrong team.

I'm unrepentant about expressing my lack of respect for the Mathworks.
And none of the things I mentioned above should be condoned because
someone is making a profit from them.

- Jordi G. H.