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| Re: MatLab vs Interactive Data Language [message #8919 is a reply to message #8873] |
Sat, 10 May 1997 00:00  |
David Ritscher
Messages: 30
Registered: August 1995
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> Anyone know of a good comparison of IDL vs MatLab? Or have their
> own opinion? I've posted this on the Mathworks group and am getting
> info from there.
The answer to this question is quickly changing. Traditionally,
MATLAB was the mathematics program with great signal processing
functionality and great toolkits in areas like control. It was,
however, not very useful as something approaching a programming
language, since it lacked important features, such as data types other
than float or complex, and had somewhat limited control commands.
IDL/PV-Wave were traditionally the packages with advanced graphics,
designed to be a full programming environment (where modules you write
are 'precompiled', but in the end, always interpreted. IDL/PV-Wave
are more image-processing oriented, MATLAB more matrix oriented.
The three languages keep trying to converge. MATLAB has recently
added some key things such as the normal data types (byte, integer,
etc.); multidimensional arrays; advanced data types (structures,
etc.). Where MATLAB is now dramatically pulling ahead is through
introduction of their C compiler (it changes MATLAB .m files into C or
C++ files) and the MATLAB math library, which allows one to call
MATLAB functionality from external standalone programs without
needing need the MATLAB interpreter. IDL and PV-Wave always need the
main program to be running. A BIG catch with MATLAB - the graphics
functions aren't included yet! This means, if your program needs to
display something, you have to use some other graphics library or call
up the MATLAB interpreter.
The PV-Wave folks are making some bold steps with the introduction of
products for integrating Java and PV-Wave.
There is a great selection of toolkits available for MATLAB. Since
MATLAB is better known, it is better supported, in the sense that
there are many third party books and products for it.
IDL/PV-wave have traditionally been better optimized than MATLAB, but
I can't give a current estimate as to whether the gap is narrowing.
These are just a few quick comments. The derivative is in favor of
MATLAB. I'm waiting to see who first takes a serious move in the
direction of providing object-oriented capabilities.
Hope this helps,
David Ritscher
Zentralinstitut fuer Biomedizinische Technik Tel: ++49 (731) 502 5313
Albert-Einstein-Allee 47 Fax: ++49 (731) 502 5315
Universitaet Ulm Internet:
D-89069 ULM
david.ritscher@zibmt.uni-ulm.de
Germany
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