[Numpy-discussion] Numpy performance vs Matlab.
Sturla Molden
sturla at molden.no
Wed Jan 7 13:16:51 EST 2009
On 1/7/2009 4:16 PM, David Cournapeau wrote:
> I think on recent versions of matlab, there is nothing you can do
> without modifying the code: matlab has some JIT compilation for loops,
> which is supposed to speed up those cases - at least, that's what is
> claimed by matlab.
Yes it does. After using both for more than 10 years, my impression is this:
- Matlab slicing creates new arrays. NumPy slicing creates views. NumPy
is faster and more memory efficient.
- Matlab JIT compiles loops. NumPy does not. Matlab is faster for stupid
programmers that don't know how use slices. But neither Matlab nor
Python/NumPy is meant to be used like Java.
- Python has psyco. It is about as good as Matlab's JIT. But psyco has
no knowledge of NumPy ndarrays.
- Using Cython is easier than writing Matlab MEX files.
- Python has better support for data structures, better built-in
structures (tuple, lists, dics, sets), and general purpose libraries.
Matlab has extensive numerical toolboxes that you can buy.
- Matlab pass function arguments by value (albeit COW optimized). Python
pass references. This makes NumPy more efficient if you need to pass
large arrays or array slices.
- Matlab tends to fragment the heap (hence the pack command).
Python/NumPy does not. This makes long-running processes notoriously
unstable on Matlab.
- Matlab has some numerical libraries that are better.
- I like the Matlab command prompt and IDE better. But its not enough to
make me want to use it.
- Python is a proper programming language. Matlab is a numerical
scripting language - good for small scripts but not complex software
systems.
Sturla Molden
More information about the NumPy-Discussion
mailing list