

Why Python is Better than Matlab for Scientific Software - mathattack
https://metarabbit.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/why-python-is-better-than-matlab-for-scientific-software/comment-page-1/

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kibibu
The argument that Python is "second best in more things" seems like a poor one
to me, because it doesn't account for the size of the gap between first and
second in some cases.

For one anecdote - during my PhD studies, I knew Python very well, and spent a
week or two working with and around SciPy's not-quite-complete stats
libraries. Eventually I threw in the towel, used Python as a preprocessor to
create CSV files and got it all done in R in a couple of hours of REPL time,
_with no prior exposure to R_.

I'm sure there are thousands of counter examples in which Python stomps all
over R for stats analysis, but for my particular use case and set of data, the
difference between the best tool and the second best was astonishing.

~~~
luispedrocoelho
With Rpy, you could have done it even from Python, calling R seamlessly and
without data copy.

