{"slug": "matlab", "name": "MATLAB", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 1, "commenters": 11, "warners": 4, "score": -1.253, "rising": 1.0, "first": "2025-12-15", "latest": "2026-10-13", "why": "MATLAB is both faster and significantly less verbose than Python.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 5, "compare": 1, "warn": 4}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "MATLAB is both faster and significantly less verbose than Python.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["MATLAB", "Matlab"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 801247648, "item_id": 50077978, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077978", "by": "applecoffeecake", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "MATLAB is both faster and significantly less verbose than Python.", "excerpt": "I switched to a Julia + C workflow from a MATLAB + Python + C workflow early in my graduate school years. In my view, Julia is the only real alternative to MATLAB if you do any kind of numerical, scientific, or technical computing. People like to mock MATLAB but MATLAB is both faster and significantly less verbose than Python. The worst thing about Python is the loop phobia and emphasis on vectorization and slick one", "context": "graduate school numerical computing", "use_case": "numerical and scientific computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Calculus with Julia"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 800851248, "item_id": 50053203, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50053203", "by": "kataklasm", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "MATLAB was too expensive and also overkill", "excerpt": "At a new-space startup I've worked at in the past we used it for some satellite (constellation) analysis work. Mechanical, Power, ConOps, that sort of stuff. MATLAB was too expensive and also overkill, as we didn't really need the toolboxes.", "context": "worked at a new-space startup", "use_case": "satellite constellation analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Calculus with Julia"}, {"id": 791088000, "item_id": 49443000, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49443000", "by": "YuechenLi", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Numpy was less awful than Matlab", "excerpt": "Python is just such a weird language in general despite its popularity that I honestly cannot recommend anyone who starts programming to choose Python as their first language, contrary to popular sentiments. I mean, I was one of the first person to start using Python when I was in grad school almost a decade ago when everybody else in my field was still using Matlab for their lab code, for the simply reason that Nump", "context": "former grad student scientist", "use_case": "lab code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python's pre-declared constants are kinda weird"}, {"id": 776464226, "item_id": 48529014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529014", "by": "targafarian", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mathematica and Matlab are terrible for a lot of reasons.", "excerpt": "I forget who said it, but Python isn't the best at anything but it's decent to good at nearly everything, and that's why it's become so popular. I do a lot of what I need symbolically in SymPy for dynamics analysis. Past that, I can't speak for it. At University I used Mathematica, but I just don't need all it can do at this point, so once again Python has proven to be \"good enough.\" Matlab will be a similar story (e", "context": "", "use_case": "numerical computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python 3.14 garbage collection rigamarole"}, {"id": 771744704, "item_id": 48234044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48234044", "by": "ktpsns", "date": "2026-05-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "While I personally try to avoid contemporary matlab at any cost", "excerpt": "Matlab inspired the scilab ecosystem, which is based on numpy, scipy, matplotlib, pandas. This was a major driver for the data science industry for a decade before AI kicked in and tensorflow, etc. was also built ontop of these libraries. While I personally try to avoid contemporary matlab at any cost, the open source ecosystem is great and matlab would be my go-to tool if they would not exist.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cleve Moler (Matlab, MathWorks) passed away on May 20, 2026"}]}], "who": [{"by": "applecoffeecake", "context": "graduate school numerical computing", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077978", "date": "2026-10-13"}, {"by": "wildzzz", "context": "worked at enterprise engineering places", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851663", "date": "2026-09-25"}, {"by": "wing-_-nuts", "context": "university student", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48913063", "date": "2026-07-14"}, {"by": "mNovak", "context": "engineer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46279928", "date": "2025-12-15"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["numerical computing", "numerical and scientific computing", "satellite constellation analysis", "engineering tools", "lab code", "control systems"], "compared": [{"slug": "numpy", "name": "NumPy", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "mathematica", "name": "Mathematica", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "octave", "name": "Octave", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50034206", "title": "Calculus with Julia", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48231319", "title": "Cleve Moler (Matlab, MathWorks) passed away on May 20, 2026", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248294", "title": "In Defense of Matlab Code", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49849832", "title": "Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49441033", "title": "Python's pre-declared constants are kinda weird", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49270040", "title": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801247648, "item_id": 50077978, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077978", "by": "applecoffeecake", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "MATLAB is both faster and significantly less verbose than Python.", "excerpt": "I switched to a Julia + C workflow from a MATLAB + Python + C workflow early in my graduate school years. In my view, Julia is the only real alternative to MATLAB if you do any kind of numerical, scientific, or technical computing. People like to mock MATLAB but MATLAB is both faster and significantly less verbose than Python. The worst thing about Python is the loop phobia and emphasis on vectorization and slick one", "context": "graduate school numerical computing", "use_case": "numerical and scientific computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Calculus with Julia"}, {"id": 800851248, "item_id": 50053203, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50053203", "by": "kataklasm", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "MATLAB was too expensive and also overkill", "excerpt": "At a new-space startup I've worked at in the past we used it for some satellite (constellation) analysis work. Mechanical, Power, ConOps, that sort of stuff. MATLAB was too expensive and also overkill, as we didn't really need the toolboxes.", "context": "worked at a new-space startup", "use_case": "satellite constellation analysis", "switched_from": "", "story": "Calculus with Julia"}, {"id": 797626609, "item_id": 49851663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851663", "by": "wildzzz", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "MATLAB wasn't and also needed network access for the license", "excerpt": "I've worked at places like they. They did have a self-service app store you could use to install things. It also had an approval system for anything that cost real money for a license. Excel was the bread and butter for many engineers for a long time to make functional tools. The great part of Excel is you could make little GUIs with the tables, not exactly QT, but you could have labels and textboxes. We regularly us", "context": "worked at enterprise engineering places", "use_case": "engineering tools", "switched_from": "", "story": "Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell"}, {"id": 791088000, "item_id": 49443000, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49443000", "by": "YuechenLi", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Numpy was less awful than Matlab", "excerpt": "Python is just such a weird language in general despite its popularity that I honestly cannot recommend anyone who starts programming to choose Python as their first language, contrary to popular sentiments. I mean, I was one of the first person to start using Python when I was in grad school almost a decade ago when everybody else in my field was still using Matlab for their lab code, for the simply reason that Nump", "context": "former grad student scientist", "use_case": "lab code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python's pre-declared constants are kinda weird"}, {"id": 788372705, "item_id": 49273294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273294", "by": "peterus", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "compare", "quote": "It's a lot less clunky than Matlab in my opinion and faster to use.", "excerpt": "I get the reasons for not supporting out of order execution and the % variable, it makes for more readable and usable notebooks. Unfortunately most of the time I use Mathematica it is not to make a readable and repeatable notebook but just to help with uni work, so I do take shortcuts like putting multiple statements in a block and using % frequently. If you are planning to add another component, I'd like to +1 the c", "context": "university student", "use_case": "control systems", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation"}, {"id": 782609008, "item_id": 48913063, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48913063", "by": "wing-_-nuts", "date": "2026-07-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used x forwarding to access matlab from my uni lab from the comfort of my own home", "excerpt": "Yeah I used x forwarding to access matlab from my uni lab from the comfort of my own home, while all the other students had to slog to the lab lol", "context": "university student", "use_case": "remote access via X forwarding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Measuring Input Latency on Linux: X11 vs. Wayland, VRR, and DXVK"}, {"id": 776464226, "item_id": 48529014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529014", "by": "targafarian", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mathematica and Matlab are terrible for a lot of reasons.", "excerpt": "I forget who said it, but Python isn't the best at anything but it's decent to good at nearly everything, and that's why it's become so popular. I do a lot of what I need symbolically in SymPy for dynamics analysis. Past that, I can't speak for it. At University I used Mathematica, but I just don't need all it can do at this point, so once again Python has proven to be \"good enough.\" Matlab will be a similar story (e", "context": "", "use_case": "numerical computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python 3.14 garbage collection rigamarole"}, {"id": 771891408, "item_id": 48243213, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48243213", "by": "svat", "date": "2026-05-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I never liked using Matlab (the little I used it)", "excerpt": "An Applied Mathematician's Apology by Nick Trefethen[1] has a chapter (a couple of pages) titled \"Cleve Moler and Matlab\". > I first met Cleve Moler when I was a graduate student and he visited Stanford, where his loud and friendly voice reverberated around Serra House. Moler is the antithesis of a European, and as a transatlantic soul, I love both Europeans and their antitheses. A room with Moler in it is a no-nonse", "context": "", "use_case": "numerical computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cleve Moler (Matlab, MathWorks) passed away on May 20, 2026"}, {"id": 771744704, "item_id": 48234044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48234044", "by": "ktpsns", "date": "2026-05-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "While I personally try to avoid contemporary matlab at any cost", "excerpt": "Matlab inspired the scilab ecosystem, which is based on numpy, scipy, matplotlib, pandas. This was a major driver for the data science industry for a decade before AI kicked in and tensorflow, etc. was also built ontop of these libraries. While I personally try to avoid contemporary matlab at any cost, the open source ecosystem is great and matlab would be my go-to tool if they would not exist.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cleve Moler (Matlab, MathWorks) passed away on May 20, 2026"}, {"id": 740511713, "item_id": 46281982, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46281982", "by": "tpoacher", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I don't like matlab that much (though I admit their documentation is excellent).", "excerpt": "One small piece of feedback for the dev, since I see you've been replying to comments here. I had to jump like 3 links and 4 pages down to figure out what runmat actually \"is\" / \"does\". As someone who's done their whole thesis using Octave this looks interesting. I love Octave, it's one of my favourite languages. And, for reasons I don't understand even myself, I don't like matlab that much (though I admit their docu", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "In Defense of Matlab Code"}, {"id": 740478849, "item_id": 46279928, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46279928", "by": "mNovak", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Biggest drawback though is that it's over-optimized for matrix math, that it forces you to think about everything as matrices", "excerpt": "As an engineer, I use Matlab (or rather, Octave the free equivalent) all the time. It's really great for numerical computing and plotting. Most things 'just work', there's a sizeable collection of packages, and I personally like how flexible the function inputs are. Biggest drawback though is that it's over-optimized for matrix math, that it forces you to think about everything as matrices, even if that's not how you", "context": "engineer", "use_case": "numerical computing", "switched_from": "", "story": "In Defense of Matlab Code"}]}