I just discovered a programing tool called Octave a few weeks ago. The language is almost identical to basic Matlab. The discriminating difference is that Octave is open source and free. I read that it's was also compatible with Matlab, and I wanted to learn Matlab programming for long time so that I can conduct some researh/analysis on my own and also, so that I can study/modify some Matlab scripts that I have found online etc.However, the problem is that I can't afford Matlab. GNU Octave, from what I have heard, is quite Matlab compatible. The challenge with Octave though is that the documentation is very sparse.I am thinking of downloading and installing Octave and FreeMat, but using Matlab documentation (and scripts) to help me get going. I am aware that there are some differences between Octave and MATLAB, but I wonder if it's possible to use Matlab code into Octave. Because I really want to use Octave this free open source program to learn Matlab.Any constructive feedback or advices are welcome.

Matlab as many factories that Octave just doesn't have.There are several MOOCs available that may be of help depending on what you wish to accomplish, eg the Scientific Computing course at Coursera (I am not affiliated with them or whatsoever).BTW, one can live pretty well without Matlab, eg Hansi, a senior member here, has commented many times that one can do anything with R.

Don't bother.Go with Python (keywords: Scipy Stack and PyLab); see:http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm? ... 842#713789

Octave is viable in order to learn basic Matlab use but there are some differences: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MATLAB_Pr ... _MATLABThe reason however for Matlab prevailing in industry is because of strong toolboxes which Octave only has a small portion of and also people being familiar and comfortable with it from University.Most of the sell side research quants we meet on a regular basis tell us they've been starting new things in R or migrating completely because of preference for R or simply to clear up Matlab licensing costs for other things.But if you've never been exposed to much programming in any interactive language going with Octave won't cause any harm. Just don't put Matlab on your CV afterwards, and if you put Octave make sure to note it's self study and not from an actual project.

QuoteOriginally posted by: PolterDon't bother.Go with Python (keywords: Scipy Stack and PyLab); see:http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm? ... 713789That highly depends on the persons affinity for programming, for throwing stuff together and getting an answer most research quants I work with preferusing R, VBA, Matlab etc. only those with proper understanding of programming will opt for a more complete language like Python, C++, C#, F#, Java, Scala etc.

Python is one of the easiest languages in the world.

QuoteOriginally posted by: HansiQuoteOriginally posted by: PolterDon't bother.Go with Python (keywords: Scipy Stack and PyLab); see:http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm? ... 713789That highly depends on the persons affinity for programming, for throwing stuff together and getting an answer most research quants I work with preferusing R, VBA, Matlab etc. only those with proper understanding of programming will opt for a more complete language like Python, C++, C#, F#, Java, Scala etc.I've used Matlab since my childhood years (including a couple of toolboxes) and started switching to Python only recently: I wouldn't say the latter is more complete. I guess I have a lot to learn...a

Thank you all for your great advices, I will take them into consideration since many people said to me to learn Python and R. I will learn them after having finished learning and mastering GNU.Octave since I have so much free time.

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: katastrofaPython is one of the easiest languages in the world.I had dinner with a lady last night who translated Dijkstra's A Method of Programming and was ex-colleague of Guido van Rossum in Amsterdam. Rumour has it that he developed Python once over the Christmas period and he had to keep it secret ....Python would be an even cooler language if van Rossum changed his name to van Possum. Imagine that!

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If I had two fish in a tank, I would totally name them Scipy and Numpy now.