Scientific computation software revisited

Hi all,

Time to re-evaluate the quality and functionality of free alternatives to Matlab. Enjoy a rather long-ish review of three numerical computation programs, FreeMat, Octave and Scilab.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/scientific-new.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

Fabulous, now all i need is time to work out how to use them

 

Interesting review!

As far as I can see, though, these packages don't handle symbolic maths (e.g., algebra and calculus). That could limit their usefulness for mathematical modelling.

We use Mathematica for scientific programming. It does just about everything one can think of but is very expensive - about $1300 for a single licence.

 

Thanks for the review.

I have used Mathematica, Maple and Matlab in the past, but currently only have Mathematica installed on my main computer as that proved to be the best for my needs. I think Matlab is better suited for programming intensive problem solving, so I may take a look at the new 2010 version. If anyone knows areas where Maple clearly dominates Mathematica and Matlab, please let me know. (I don't.)

Cost aside, are the free math programs better at anything than their commercial counterparts, or to put it another way, would you recommend them in addition to Matlab and/or Mathematica?