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I have a numerical analysis class that uses #Matlab . We used to be able to get it from free due to a school license, but now Matlab doesn't want to. We can only access Matlab through a remote windows10 desktop from the university. But honestly I think it's annoying to have to connect to that all the time. I've been looking at #gnuOctave and I wonder how much similar the octave language is to Matlab, will I encounter issues programming Matlab in octave. Is it worth it to pay $50 for a student Matlab license ?
@louiscouture IIRC (and it's been almost 10 years), The move from matlab to octave should be fairly smooth.
@louiscouture I've used both heavily at different times. Octave will accept pretty much all valid Matlab code, but the reverse is not true (Matlab doesn't support Octave's use of x++ to increment x, for example, and it's pickier about single vs. double quotes). So if you need to submit code for the grader to run, you should at least do the remote desktop thing afterward to verify your code is Matlab-legal. If you just need to submit your results, Octave's richer syntax is certainly nice to have.
Matlab's user interface beats the pants off Octave. In Matlab I could use the variable window almost like a spreadsheet to edit arrays in-place, delete failed commands from the history window, copy-paste large blocks of commands from the history window into my editor or command line, etc. Octave's mindset is different - the GUI is an afterthought and by default it just runs in terminal.
Matlab has better external tooling. There is a bunch of field-specific "toolboxes" but also a repository of user-submitted functions that you'll only have access to with a Mathworks account, and the licence forbids you from using those functions in anything other than Matlab as I recall. This may be less of a problem now with Github's increased prominence.
UPDATE : Now it seems octave is accepted as well