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  5. MATLAB vs Python vs Visual Basic

MATLAB vs Python vs Visual Basic

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Python
Python
Stacks262.8K
Followers205.4K
Votes6.9K
GitHub Stars69.7K
Forks33.3K
Visual Basic
Visual Basic
Stacks569
Followers514
Votes8
MATLAB
MATLAB
Stacks1.1K
Followers702
Votes37

MATLAB vs Python vs Visual Basic: What are the differences?

Differences between MATLAB, Python, and Visual Basic

Introduction

This Markdown code provides a concise comparison between three popular programming languages: MATLAB, Python, and Visual Basic. The key differences highlighted here will help users understand the distinguishing features of each language, aiding in their selection of the most suitable option for their specific programming needs.

  1. Syntax and Usability:

MATLAB: MATLAB is known for its easy-to-understand syntax, making it ideal for numerical computing and scientific applications. It offers a wide range of built-in functions and toolboxes for efficient data manipulation and analysis.

Python: Python, a versatile language, is popular due to its simplicity and readability. It excels in general-purpose programming, data analysis, machine learning, and web development, offering extensive libraries and frameworks.

Visual Basic: Visual Basic, primarily used for Windows application development, also features a straightforward syntax. It provides a graphical user interface (GUI) design environment, enabling the creation of visually appealing applications without extensive coding.

  1. Application Domain:

MATLAB: MATLAB is widely used in engineering, mathematics, and scientific research. It offers advanced numerical and matrix operations, making it suitable for modeling complex systems, signal processing, and algorithm development.

Python: Python has a broad application domain, ranging from scientific computing and data analysis to web development, artificial intelligence, and automation. Its versatility allows it to be used in diverse fields.

Visual Basic: Visual Basic targets Windows desktop applications, database management, and Office automation. It provides a seamless integration with other Microsoft products, simplifying the development of Windows-specific software.

  1. Community and Support:

MATLAB: MATLAB boasts a supportive community of users and developers. It has an extensive documentation base, official forums, and dedicated support from MathWorks. However, the availability of free resources is limited compared to Python.

Python: Python, an open-source language, has a vast and active community worldwide. It offers comprehensive documentation, numerous online resources, and an abundance of libraries and frameworks developed and maintained by the community.

Visual Basic: Visual Basic has a supportive community focusing mainly on Windows application development. Microsoft provides official documentation, forums, and resources specifically for Visual Basic developers.

  1. Learning Curve:

MATLAB: MATLAB's syntax and functions are relatively easy to grasp, requiring less programming experience. Its comprehensive documentation and user-friendly interface contribute to a shallow learning curve.

Python: Python's simplicity and readability contribute to a gentle learning curve, making it accessible for beginners. Its widespread popularity ensures an abundance of learning resources and tutorials.

Visual Basic: Visual Basic's simplicity primarily targets beginners, providing a straightforward learning curve due to its visual design environment and simplicity.

  1. Software Cost:

MATLAB: MATLAB licenses can be costly, particularly for commercial use. However, MATLAB offers a free version called MATLAB Online, suited for limited use or educational purposes.

Python: Python is open-source and free to use for both personal and commercial projects. The availability of extensive libraries and frameworks enhances its cost-effectiveness.

Visual Basic: Visual Basic is typically bundled with Microsoft's development suite, Visual Studio. The commercial editions of this suite may require a substantial investment, while the free or Community editions provide limited features and support.

  1. Cross-Platform Compatibility:

MATLAB: MATLAB is primarily available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, ensuring cross-platform compatibility. However, some toolbox features and external libraries may have platform restrictions.

Python: Python is highly versatile and compatible, supporting multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its code can be executed across different operating systems with minimal or no modifications.

Visual Basic: Visual Basic focuses on Windows desktop applications, limiting cross-platform compatibility. Although there are ways to make Visual Basic programs work on other platforms, it requires additional effort and might result in reduced functionality.

In Summary, MATLAB excels in numerical computing and scientific applications, Python offers versatility and a broad range of applications, while Visual Basic specializes in Windows application development with a graphical user interface. Each language differs in terms of syntax, usability, community support, learning curve, software cost, and cross-platform compatibility.

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Advice on Python, Visual Basic, MATLAB

Thomas
Thomas

Talent Co-Ordinator at Tessian

Mar 11, 2020

Decided

In December we successfully flipped around half a billion monthly API requests from our Ruby on Rails application to some new Python 3 applications. Our Head of Engineering has written a great article as to why we decided to transition from Ruby on Rails to Python 3! Read more about it in the link below.

263k views263k
Comments
Avy
Avy

Apr 8, 2020

Needs adviceonReact NativeReact NativePythonPythonFlutterFlutter

I've been juggling with an app idea and am clueless about how to build it.

A little about the app:

  • Social network type app ,
  • Users can create different directories, in those directories post images and/or text that'll be shared on a public dashboard .

Directory creation is the main point of this app. Besides there'll be rooms(groups),chatting system, search operations similar to instagram,push notifications

I have two options:

  1. @{React Native}|tool:2699|, @{Python}|tool:993|, AWS stack or
  2. @{Flutter}|tool:7180|, @{Go}|tool:1005| ( I don't know what stack or tools to use)
722k views722k
Comments
Davit
Davit

Apr 11, 2020

Needs advice

Hi everyone, I have just started to study web development, so I'm very new in this field. I would like to ask you which tools are most updated and good to use for getting a job in medium-big company. Front-end is basically not changing by time so much (as I understood by researching some info), so my question is about back-end tools. Which backend tools are most updated and requested by medium-big companies (I am searching for immediate job possibly)?

Thank you in advance Davit

390k views390k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Python
Python
Visual Basic
Visual Basic
MATLAB
MATLAB

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.

Visual Basic is derived from BASIC and enables the rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, access to databases using Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects, or ActiveX Data Objects, and creation of ActiveX controls and objects.

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
GitHub Stars
69.7K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
33.3K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
262.8K
Stacks
569
Stacks
1.1K
Followers
205.4K
Followers
514
Followers
702
Votes
6.9K
Votes
8
Votes
37
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1186
    Great libraries
  • 966
    Readable code
  • 848
    Beautiful code
  • 789
    Rapid development
  • 692
    Large community
Cons
  • 53
    Still divided between python 2 and python 3
  • 28
    Performance impact
  • 26
    Poor syntax for anonymous functions
  • 22
    GIL
  • 20
    Package management is a mess
Pros
  • 5
    ALGOL-like syntax makes code more readable
  • 3
    XML Literals
Cons
  • 4
    Specific to the microsoft platform
Pros
  • 20
    Simulink
  • 5
    Functions, statements, plots, directory navigation easy
  • 5
    Model based software development
  • 3
    S-Functions
  • 2
    REPL
Cons
  • 2
    Does not support named function arguments
  • 2
    Parameter-value pairs syntax to pass arguments clunky
  • 2
    Doesn't allow unpacking tuples/arguments lists with *
  • 1
    Costs a lot
Integrations
Django
Django
.NET
.NET
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Python, Visual Basic, MATLAB?

JavaScript

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.

PHP

PHP

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

Ruby

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

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

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

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#

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

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

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.

Swift

Swift

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.

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