Common Lisp vs MATLAB

Overview

Common Lisp

Stacks268

Followers255

Votes145

MATLAB

Stacks1.1K

Followers702

Votes37

Common Lisp vs MATLAB: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Common Lisp and MATLAB

Common Lisp and MATLAB are both popular programming languages, but they have several key differences that set them apart.

Syntax: Common Lisp follows a prefix notation where the function comes first, followed by its arguments enclosed in parentheses. On the other hand, MATLAB uses infix notation with operators placed between operands.
Type System: Common Lisp is a dynamically typed language, allowing for flexible variable types that can change at runtime. In contrast, MATLAB is statically typed, meaning variables must be declared with a specific type before use.
Built-in Functions: Common Lisp provides a rich set of built-in functions for common programming tasks such as string manipulation, file handling, and networking. MATLAB, on the other hand, is specifically designed for mathematical and scientific computing, providing extensive built-in functions for matrix operations, plotting, and numerical analysis.
Development Environment: Common Lisp typically uses an integrated development environment (IDE) like Emacs or LispWorks, offering powerful debugging and code navigation tools. MATLAB, being a high-level language, has its own IDE that provides an interactive environment for data analysis, visualization, and debugging.
Community and Libraries: Common Lisp has a smaller community and fewer libraries compared to MATLAB. Although Lisp enthusiasts have developed a range of libraries for various purposes, MATLAB has a vast collection of domain-specific toolboxes and extensive support for machine learning, signal processing, and image processing tasks.
Performance: Common Lisp is known for its runtime performance and efficiency. It provides low-level control over memory management and allows for optimized code execution. MATLAB, however, sacrifices some performance for ease of use and productivity, as it is optimized for numerical calculations and matrix operations.

In summary, Common Lisp and MATLAB differ in their syntax, type systems, built-in functions, development environments, community and libraries, as well as performance characteristics. While Common Lisp is more general-purpose and flexible, MATLAB is tailored for scientific computing and offers a wide range of specialized tools and libraries.

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Detailed Comparison

Common Lisp	MATLAB
Lisp was originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs, influenced by the notation of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus. It quickly became the favored programming language for artificial intelligence (AI) research. As one of the earliest programming languages, Lisp pioneered many ideas in computer science, including tree data structures, automatic storage management, dynamic typing, conditionals, higher-order functions, recursion, and the self-hosting compiler. [source: wikipedia]	Using MATLAB, you can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. The language, tools, and built-in math functions enable you to explore multiple approaches and reach a solution faster than with spreadsheets or traditional programming languages, such as C/C++ or Java.
Statistics
Stacks 268	Stacks 1.1K
Followers 255	Followers 702
Votes 145	Votes 37
Pros & Cons
Pros 24 Flexibility 22 High-performance 17 Comfortable: garbage collection, closures, macros, REPL 13 Stable 12 Lisp Cons 4 Too many Parentheses 3 Standard did not evolve since 1994 2 No hygienic macros 2 Small library ecosystem 1 Ultra-conservative community	Pros 20 Simulink 5 Model based software development 5 Functions, statements, plots, directory navigation easy 3 S-Functions 2 REPL Cons 2 Doesn't allow unpacking tuples/arguments lists with * 2 Does not support named function arguments 2 Parameter-value pairs syntax to pass arguments clunky 1 Costs a lot

What are some alternatives to Common Lisp, MATLAB?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Related Comparisons

Common Lisp vs MATLAB: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Common Lisp and MATLAB

Common Lisp and MATLAB are both popular programming languages, but they have several key differences that set them apart.

Syntax: Common Lisp follows a prefix notation where the function comes first, followed by its arguments enclosed in parentheses. On the other hand, MATLAB uses infix notation with operators placed between operands.
Type System: Common Lisp is a dynamically typed language, allowing for flexible variable types that can change at runtime. In contrast, MATLAB is statically typed, meaning variables must be declared with a specific type before use.
Built-in Functions: Common Lisp provides a rich set of built-in functions for common programming tasks such as string manipulation, file handling, and networking. MATLAB, on the other hand, is specifically designed for mathematical and scientific computing, providing extensive built-in functions for matrix operations, plotting, and numerical analysis.
Development Environment: Common Lisp typically uses an integrated development environment (IDE) like Emacs or LispWorks, offering powerful debugging and code navigation tools. MATLAB, being a high-level language, has its own IDE that provides an interactive environment for data analysis, visualization, and debugging.
Community and Libraries: Common Lisp has a smaller community and fewer libraries compared to MATLAB. Although Lisp enthusiasts have developed a range of libraries for various purposes, MATLAB has a vast collection of domain-specific toolboxes and extensive support for machine learning, signal processing, and image processing tasks.
Performance: Common Lisp is known for its runtime performance and efficiency. It provides low-level control over memory management and allows for optimized code execution. MATLAB, however, sacrifices some performance for ease of use and productivity, as it is optimized for numerical calculations and matrix operations.

Common Lisp vs MATLAB

Overview

Common Lisp vs MATLAB: What are the differences?