About alternatives to Matlab

[Phil Schmidt]

sturlamolden wrote:

> Using Python just for the sake of using Python is silly.

Well, that kind of gets right to my point. Does the "added" effort with
Python to interface with data acquisition hardware really result in
less productivity? I am very familiar with Matlab, Labview, and Python,
and frankly, Python is the most productive and powerful programming
language of the three. But it's the hardware compatibility thing that
concerns me with Python.

It seems the answers are hard to come by on this issue. I sure would be
willing to give it a try, except that I'm getting paid to get a job
done, not to tinker around with Python and DAQ hardware. But if
tinkering around could save my project money on commercial software,
and still get it done on schedule, it would be a big win. I just don't
have confidence that it would.

Phil