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Poll

What is your main/preferred programming language of choice?

MATLAB (Way to go!!! You rock!)

49%

Python (not from within MATLAB)

29%

Any variation of C

12%

Java, Javascript

R, Ruby, Swift, Go, Scala, PHP, VB

Other not mentioned, or mixture

10577 votes

Image Analyst on 12 Feb 2022

6 views (last 30 days)

19 Comments

Prakhar Sharma on 19 Jul 2022

Plz create this poll on stackexchange. Very few Python users use MATLAB central.

Prakhar Sharma on 19 Jul 2022 (Edited on 19 Jul 2022)

The problem is not many people use MATLAB for coding. First, it is costly and why would someone go for MATLAB when they have Python. Python community is so big. I can ask my doubts on stackexchange etc. and can get reply in minutes. This is not the same with MATLAB. See this question of mine for example, https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1740275-nonlinear-coefficient-in-custom-pde?s_tid=prof_contriblnk

I can't add temperature dependent coefficient (conductivity) on a custom PDE in PDE toolbox. If I were on Python I could edit the source code or fork the project to create my own library. For simple works MATLAB is fast and easy, they have nice tutorials. But there is less flexibility.

Kaiyue Wang on 19 Jul 2022

I prefer languages with great type design, like idris (has anyone heard of it?). The inconsistencies in types for Matlab is killing me.

1 Reply

Artem Lenskiy on 19 Jul 2022

This would indeed be great. I would suggest MathWorks develop a new language that could be used alongside the current language to retain the current user base, but at the same time attract more developers from the industry who value a strict type system or perhaps integrate MATLAB with existing languages e.g. RUST.

Yannick on 7 Jul 2022

In order to make my code accessible to the research community, is use python the most.

Prakhar Sharma on 14 Jun 2022

I use Python for my research because not everyone knows or have access to MATLAB.

Artem Lenskiy on 5 Jun 2022

Matlab is a great, but there is a room for improvement. For example, it would be nice to have some capabilites of functional programming e.g. map, foldl, similar to what is discussed here https://blogs.mathworks.com/loren/2013/01/24/introduction-to-functional-programming-with-anonymous-functions-part-2/ but make it part of the language.

Andrew Nolan on 5 May 2022

Java and Javascript listed together as the same option?!?!?!

jimmy hu on 1 May 2022

That's why we're here.

Gayathri Saravanan on 25 Apr 2022

Matlab is the user friendly language.

1 Reply

Hamid Majidi Balanji on 2 May 2022

MATLAB is not a programming language.

Richard Moore on 11 Apr 2022

MATLAB is the right tool for a lot of my non-deployed engineering development and analysis code. The large set of well-documented and consistent functions, succinct and readable code, and interpreted nature of the language all suit my uses well. Live scripts and apps are great additions in recent years that improve some types of engineering workflow.

The interface with Simulink is still disappointing. Powerful aspects of MATLAB like parfor looping and regression/fitting tools either don't work with Simulink blocks/models when called from MATLAB or break in difficult-to-troubleshoot ways. I hope the integration between between MATLAB and Simulink will improve in the future.