Reacting mostly on the title, not the article about software as art/hobby, most software I interact with makes me feel something. Mostly rage, occasionally despair. There has been cases of pleasure or delight, but those are so rare they basically don't count.
Edit: also lots of confusion.
I did that with Octave too. I didn't mind the language much, but it wasn't great. I had significant experience with both coding and simple models when doing it, so I wasn't a beginner; I can see it being an additional hurdle for some people. What are they using now? Python?
Believe Andrew Ng's new course is all Python now, yeah. Amusingly enough another class that I took (Linear Algebra: Foundations to Frontiers) kinda did the opposite move - when I took it, it was all Python, but shortly after they transitioned to full-powered MATLAB with limited student licenses. Guess it makes sense given that LAFF was primarily about the math.
Although the entire enclosure was shaken around enough to tear bits off the PCB via sheer inertia and crack the CPU (hence the need for the recovery process described).
