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What are some alternatives to MATLAB?
R, NumPy, PHP, JavaScript, and Python are the most popular alternatives and competitors to MATLAB.
R
A language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
Why people like R:
- Data analysis
- Graphics and data visualization
- Free
- Great community
NumPy
Fundamental package for scientific computing with Python
Why people like NumPy:
- Great for data analysis
PHP
A popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development
Why people like PHP:
- Large community
- Open source
- Easy deployment
- Great frameworks
JavaScript
Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions
Why people like JavaScript:
- Can be used on frontend/backend
- It's everywhere
- Lots of great frameworks
- Fast
Python
A clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.
Why people like Python:
- Great libraries
- Readable code
- Beautiful code
- Rapid development
Java
A concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible
Why people like Java:
- Great libraries
- Widely used
- Excellent tooling
- Huge amount of documentation available
HTML5
5th major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web
Why people like HTML5:
- New doctype
- Local storage
- Canvas
- Semantic header and footer
ASP.NET
An open source web framework for building modern web apps and services with .NET
Ruby
A dynamic, interpreted, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity
Why people like Ruby:
- Programme friendly
- Quick to develop
- Great community
- Productivity
ES6
The next version of JavaScript
Why people like ES6:
- ES6 code is shorter than traditional JS
- Module System Standardized
- Extremly compact
- Destructuring Assignment
C#
Simple, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language for the .NET platform
Why people like C#:
- Cool syntax
- Great lambda support
- Great generics support
- Language integrated query (linq)
Go
An open source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software
Why people like Go:
- High-performance
- Simple, minimal syntax
- Fun to write
- Easy concurrency support via goroutines
Markdown
Text-to-HTML conversion tool/syntax for web writers, by John Gruber
Why people like Markdown:
- Easy formatting
- Widely adopted
- Intuitive
- Github integration
Swift
An innovative new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch.
Why people like Swift:
- Ios
- Elegant
- Not Objective-C
- Backed by apple
Objective-C
The primary programming language you use when writing software for OS X and iOS
Why people like Objective-C:
- Ios
- Xcode
- Backed by apple
- Osx
C++
Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation
Why people like C++:
- Performance
- Control over memory allocation
- Cross-platform
- Fast
CSS 3
The latest evolution of the Cascading Style Sheets language
Scala
A pure-bred object-oriented language that runs on the JVM
Why people like Scala:
- Static typing
- Jvm
- Pattern-matching
- Scala is fun
C
One of the most widely used programming languages of all time
Why people like C:
- Performance
- Low-level
- Portability
- Hardware level
CoffeeScript
A little language that compiles into JavaScript
Why people like CoffeeScript:
- Easy to read
- Faster to write
- Syntactic sugar
- Elegant
Kotlin
Statically typed Programming Language targeting JVM and JavaScript
Why people like Kotlin:
- Interoperable with Java
- Functional Programming support
- Backed by JetBrains
- Official Android support
Elixir
Dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications
Why people like Elixir:
- Concurrency
- Functional
- Erlang vm
- Great documentation
Perl
Highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 26 years of development
Why people like Perl:
- Lots of libraries
- Open source
- Text processing
- Powerful
Rust
A safe, concurrent, practical language
Why people like Rust:
- Guaranteed memory safety
- Fast
- Open source
- Minimal runtime
Groovy
A dynamic language for the Java platform
Why people like Groovy:
- Java platform
- Much more productive than java
- Concise and readable
- Very little code needed for complex tasks
Clojure
A dynamic programming language that targets the Java Virtual Machine
Why people like Clojure:
- It is a lisp
- Concise syntax
- Persistent data structures
- Concurrency
Lua
Powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language
Why people like Lua:
- Fast learning curve
- Very easy to embed in C programs
- Efficient memory usage
- Open source
Haskell
An advanced purely-functional programming language
Why people like Haskell:
- Purely-functional programming
- Statically typed
- Type-safe
- Open source
PowerShell
A task automation and configuration management framework
Erlang
A programming language used to build massively scalable soft real-time systems with requirements on high availability
Why people like Erlang:
- Concurrency Support
- Real time, distributed applications
- Fault tolerance
- Soft real-time
HAML
HTML Abstraction Markup Language - A Markup Haiku
Why people like HAML:
- Clean and simple
- No html open/close tags
- Easier to write than ERB
- Forces clean and readable code
Dart
A new web programming language with libraries, a virtual machine, and tools
Why people like Dart:
- Backed by Google
- Twice the speed of Javascript
- Scalable
- Polymer Dart
Elm
A type inferred, functional reactive language that compiles to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Why people like Elm:
- Code stays clean
- Great type system
- No Runtime Exceptions
- Fun
GNU Bash
Functional improvements over sh for both programming and interactive use
Why people like GNU Bash:
- Powerful scripting language
- Customizable
- Widely adopted
- Cross platform
Visual Basic
Modern, high-level, multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language for building apps using Visual Studio and the .NET Framework
Why people like Visual Basic:
- XML Literals
F#
Strongly-typed, functional-first programming language for writing simple code to solve complex problems
Why people like F#:
- Pattern-matching
- Makes programming fun again
- Type providers
- Frictionless
Crystal
Fast as C, slick as Ruby
Why people like Crystal:
- Compiles to efficient native code
- Ruby inspired syntax
- Performance oriented - C-like speeds
- Gem-like packages, called Shards
Julia
A high-level, high-performance dynamic programming language for technical computing
Why people like Julia:
- Designed for parallelism and distributed computation
- Lisp-like Macros
- Multiple Dispatch
- Fast Performance and Easy Experimentation
ClojureScript
A Clojure compiler targeting JavaScript
Why people like ClojureScript:
- Functional and stable
Oh My ZSH
A framework for managing your Zsh configuration
ActionScript
An object-oriented programming language
AWK
A language for text processing, data extraction and reporting
Java EE
The standard in community-driven enterprise software
Hack
A programming language for HHVM that interoperates seamlessly with PHP
Why people like Hack:
- Interoperates seamlessly with php
- Backed by facebook
- Open source
- HHVM
D
Modern convenience. Modeling power. Native efficiency.
Why people like D:
- Compile-time function execution
- Makes functional programming style easier
- Productive
- Much easier to do Concurrent/Parallel vs C/C++
Common Lisp
The modern, multi-paradigm, high-performance, compiled, ANSI-standardized descendant of the long-running family of Lisp programming languages
Why people like Common Lisp:
- Flexibility
- High-performance
- Comfortable: garbage collection, closures, macros, REPL
- Lisp
JRuby
A high performance, stable, fully threaded Java implementation of the Ruby programming language
Why people like JRuby:
- Java
- Faster than Ruby
- JVM
- Threads
Zsh (Z shell)
An extended Bourne shell with a large number of improvements