On 19 Aug., 09:55, "Johan S. R. Nielsen" <j.s.r.niel...@mat.dtu.dk> wrote: > However, I really don't believe that the current matrix-construction > syntax is what is seriously keeping Matlab people away from Sage -- > and if it is, then that's simply silly! Comparing > > M = [1 2; > 3 4; > 5 6] > > with > > M = matrix(RR,2,3,[ > 1, 2, > 3, 4, > 5, 6 ]) > > that's a very small syntax price to pay for 1) unambiguous, > straightforward syntax 2) complete control of element space. I always > disliked Matlab for its happy-go-lucky, ambiguous syntax, and I think > it is unnecessary to make specialised, ad-hoc syntax in Sage for (2D) > matrices (over X-bit floats). > > My impression from my own math department is that a lot of Matlab > users know more or less only Matlab as a programming language, and > that they have always used this, and their advisor also used/s this. > They have the opinion that it is really difficult to learn a new > language, and will dislike *any* difference between Matlab and > "Alternative X", no matter how minute (much like Jordi mentioned > earlier). I think it would be silly to start introducing Matlab syntax > and renaming functions to look as much as possible like Matlab for > this reason. The ex-Matlab users would not stop complaining until Sage > was a completely compatible superset of Matlab anyway. > > On the other hand, I think it would of course think it would be great > if all functionality needed for numerics people would be readily > available in Sage. Though not at the expense of a dichotomised syntax > and namespace to cater for Matlab devotees. In time, I think this > would make people migrate to Sage because of expense, ideology and > functionality.
I mostly agree with Johan, especially in not (by default) adding lots of alternate syntax from other programs to Sage, just to become kind of (superficially) "compatible". It shouldn't be that hard to implement functions which at least partially translate MATLAB / Mma / whatever syntax (passed as a string, or from a file) to corresponding Sage expressions and commands, analoguous to preparse(). This could help [some of the] users familiar with or used to e.g. MATLAB migrate to Sage. We could then perhaps even support different input *modes*, but we IMHO shouldn't try to accept all at the same time. Another aspect of course is providing all the functions typically used in numerical applications. My 2 ct, -leif -- 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
