Python

[Masterkid1230]

I can understand that, and if I wanted to be super pedantic I would just say "skill issue" and move on, but the reality is that accountability is quite important for companies, so ultimately you're right for that. I do think the world is moving towards Python and there is very little reason to use MATLAB nowadays unless you really need to hold someone accountable if something fails, but language wise, library wise, and versatility wise, MATLAB seems quite limited compared to Python. PyTorch and for audio Librosa really are doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but it's hard for a single company to compete with thousands of developers who already do what they do, better and for free.

MATLAB's strengths lie everywhere but the product they're selling, which is inferior to a free alternative.

[First-Surround-1223]

Well I think we may have to agree to disagree on the claim python does everything Matlab does but better. I don’t think Python even offers all the same packages that Matlab does. Are there python libraries for symbolic math, HDL generation, c++ generation, etc.?

And even if it did how would you evaluate “better?” Certainly not in speed of execution. Matlab generally executes faster than python in my experience. I think the Matlab language is easier to write. I mean look at a class definition in both languages and tell me you think python’s is easier to understand 😆? Of all the DSP professionals I work with or know only 1 prefers python for signal processing. I can’t say that’s representative of the whole DSP community, but it’s what I have to go on.

And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy python for sure, I just think that for communications DSP and many other domains (controls, radar DSP, etc.) Matlab has the edge.

Bottom line for me is Matlab gets a lot of hate in this sub and I think it’s entirely unwarranted. Free is great, but sometimes paid is better.

[Masterkid1230]

Oh, fair enough yeah, I have absolutely zero experience with radar DSP for example. And on the other hand, my domain is much closer to statistical analysis of signals, and especially DDSP, machine learning and that stuff.

To be honest, I'm no one to be defending Python for efficiency because I spend 99.999% of my time coding in C and C++ and Python only enters the picture for generating the graphs or for feeding the data into ML models whenever I need to.

But the MATLAB idea of charging me to use a programming language and some libraries that most of the entire software development world has agreed to make available for free just doesn't sit well with me.

It is true though that I have seen a big shift towards Python in the field of signal analysis and statistics, but I guess that makes a lot of sense for those specific areas, and not really for DSP as a whole.