On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 3:58 PM, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > If somebody walked up to *you* and asked: "Is Sage now a viable > alternative to MATLAB?" what would you say?
Great question. I teach in a predominately applied school and have been in lots of committees where this issue has come up. The argument I've heard is basically that (a) math software is a bit of a (necessary) extra burden on the student who must first learn the theoretical aspects of the topic, (b) matlab is used in industry more than any other math software, (c) we should train students to know the most commonly used software so as to maximize their value to a "potential employer". (I teach at the USNA, which requires a military service, so by "potential employer" I mean one after their service commitment is up and they enter the private sector. AFAIK, the Navy does not require matlab knowledge in any of their positions, though I do think that a very good facility with math software *in general* is of significant importance. In other words, if an officer arrives at a new job and is told to "learn software X" they should be able to do so very quickly.) Do I agree matlab knowledge is very important? No. Do I mention octave (as a free alternative to matlab) and Sage? Yes. Sadly for the American taxpayer, this objection to the cost of matlab (which is very cheap for students but very expensive for professionals) does not have a serious effect since the engineering dept already requires matlab. Conclusion: I think Sage needs more engineers:-) I presume a "matlab mode" option in the notebook would not hurt. My 2 cents. > I'm especially interested in what people who do numerical/applied > computation think. > ... > -- William > > -- > William Stein > Professor of Mathematics > University of Washington > http://wstein.org > > -- > 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 > -- 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
