[Numpy-discussion] matlab vs. python question

[Zdeněk Hurák]

Steve Lianoglou wrote:

>> Beside proper programing paradigm Python easily scales to large-
>> scale number crunching: You can run large-matrices calculations
>> with about 1/2 to 1/4 of memory consumption comparing to Matlab.
> 
> Is that really true? (The large-matrix number crunching, not the
> proper programming paradigm ;-)
> 
> By no scientific means of evaluation, I was under the impression that
> the opposite was true to a smaller degree.
> 
> Also, a lot of the times that I'm dealing with extremely large
> matrices, they're of the sparse variety, which matlab currently
> handles with a bit more ease (and transparency) to the user.
> 
> -steve

As Matlab is linking to Lapack, Atlas and similar libraries for (at least a
part of) linear algebra computations, if you link to these freely available
libraries from whatever other language, you should get about the same
results.

Zdenek