On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 3:40 PM, David Kirkby <david.kir...@onetel.net> wrote: > On 18 February 2011 19:36, Matt Goodman <meawo...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Regarding the academics comment, check this out: >> http://www.google.com/trends?q=matlab%2C+python&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 >> >> Matlab related dips notably (~50% peak to trough) during spring, winter, and >> summer breaks. > > I can see the noticeable dips/troughs you see. As you say, you don't > see them with Python. > > But I tried a few other terms. Like "statistics" > > http://www.google.com/trends?q=statistics&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 > > clearly statistics are used a lot in industry, but again there are > patterns which repeat annually. > >> All I really have to say about MATLAB is for a piece of software backed by >> millions of dollars of development, its pretty notably deficient. Deficient >> by design actually, I mean why include image processing routines, when you >> could charge more for that in a toolbox? > > But Mathworks primary aim is to make as much money as possible. If > they feel that making image processing tools an optional item will > maximise their profits, then they will do it. >> There is nothing in there that you >> couldn't develop in < 1000 hours of competent developer time, using standard >> numerical recipes. > > But at say $100/hour to include developer time and overheads, that > would have cost you $100,000 to build. I don't know what the toolbox > costs, but it will be a lot less than that. > >> I didn't mean to start a flame war here, just wanted to present some >> observations. > > They are useful observations, but my observations from industry is > that MATLAB is used a lot. It clearly tends to be taught a lot too. > > It's interesting if you put "python" into Google trends, the > popularity of the search term is slowly decreasing > > http://www.google.com/trends?q=python&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 > > As is MATLAB > > http://www.google.com/trends?q=matlab&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 > > and Mathematica > > http://www.google.com/trends?q=mathematica&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 > > Mathematica has shown the largest fall, with less than half the > searches as in 2004 > > http://www.google.com/trends?q=mathematica&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Note that these graphs are relative measures, so nearly every technical term is on the decline due to the increase of more mainstream topics. For example, I don't think computers have become less popular this last decade: http://www.google.com/trends?q=computer&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 - Robert -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
