[vox-tech] R vs. MATLAB/Octave

[Norm Matloff]

Mark asked:

> Thank you for the tutorial.  From scanning through the tutorial, it looks
> like R does things for which I use MATLAB.  What are the strengths and
> weaknesses of R and MATLAB in comparison to each other besides the price?
> =)

The answer is basically the same as for the comparison I made of R to
SPSS and SAS last week:  R was developed by famous statisticians, so its
statistical methodology is correct and modern.  MATLAB was developed by
a numerical analyst.  So, R would be better for statistics while MATLAB
would be better for stuff like solving differential equations.

Norm