Re: Octave and Database connectivity

[fork]

Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <jordigh <at> octave.org> writes:

> As long as Matlab is still the dominant implementation of the Octave
> language, there will never be an OctaveNG.

That is a decision to be made, not a fact that we all have to deal with like the
weather ;)  Not that I have the time to implement any of the changes I complain
about.

> So why not just use Python? Or Julia? Or R?

Cuz they annoy me:

Python:  zero based arrays, too much type rigidity (get errors assigning a
float8 to a float16 sort of thing), stupid indentation block syntax.

Julia:  weird syntax for vectorized operations (just tried it).

R:  Ugly for matrix processing, too much type rigidity, mean people on the
mailing list.

My dissertation code is 80% slicing and dicing arrays, assigning to weird
off-diagonals, etc, etc, and the above languages are not as good as ML/Octave. 
Not to say they couldn't work, but they are way less graceful. 

I also am impatient with the latest-greatest syndrome when it comes to computer
languages.  EE's have been using Tcl/Tk and Matlab for 30 years for a reason....