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From: Jan Simon on 18 Sep 2009 11:28 Dear Rune! > > The students, who decided to do the job in Matlab, needed some hours and the assessment of the results was easy for me. For the solutions in C I had to cope with segmentation faults, problems with underscores when calling BLAS lib or even better: self-programed vector libraries. > > Don't use C. Use C++. With C++ the students have to learn object oriented programing and the numerical integration stuff simultaneously, which is not effective. On step after the other. By the way: I ment a Dormand-Prince-Integrator, not Compiler. > > My conclusion: > > If a user sits in front of a GUI and waits, 5 sec is the maximum bearable delay. > > Otherwise speed does not matter. > > Success does. > > Frustration after hours of debugging does, too. > > Therefore the slow Matlab directly supports a peaceful mind. > > No, it doesn't. I've been working in an environment where > high-throughput data processing is the name of the game. > A lot of people use the 'easy' matlab approach, only to > find that they need 5-10 hours to process the data that > are collected in one. As this is a 24/7 operation that > can persist for indefinite amounts of time, one accumulates > a backlog from the word 'go!'. > > So I made some simple demos to show how slow matlab really > is, compared to C++. The guys literally went pale - "we > thought matlab was the best there is..." > > Mat*LAB* is just that - a lab toy. Do not for one second > believe otherwise. If your mind is at peace using matlab, > be aware that people are worked more or less to death > (at least vocationally speaking - various stress factor > wear them down to the point they are unfit to work) from > using matlab. I'm not used to hear from scientists, what I should believe or not. If peoples are worked to death, this is not the effect from Matlab, but from the demands of high-throughput computing. You call your business a game. I'm working more in the field of real life problems: Teaching students the art of obtaining an algorithmical description of numerical problems, and writing reliable software for clinical diagnosis, which can be operated by pysiotherapists without computational education. This goes well and nobody died in the last weeks. I love my work and I'm able to use the advantages of Matlab to solve the problems of my customers. Of course, anybody can get satisfied with C++ (Python/ Erlang/ Fortran ...) also. And of course, it is possible to use Matlab to encrease the personal stress level. Without doubt it is even possible to work to death with a hammer and some stones also. If the logs of your 24/7 high-throughput processing accumulates te word "go!", it is not necessarily the wrong (Matlab)-hammer -- perhaps you hit the wrong stone! I think, tranquility is not question of the tool. I solve in 8 hours, what can be solved in 8 hours. Afterwards I'm going to bed. Still in tranquility - this thread made my day: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/261051 Jan |