r/Python • • Aug 05 '19

Python's response to MATLAB

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '19

that happens, for sure, but generally I wouldn't claim this to be a problem.

stem people are problem solvers, so they will likely find a solution, additionally, I know a good chunk of people from high school that I though fer sure would go for computer science, but went into physics / math instead, so I also think it's unlikely that in a classroom or tutor setting no one has an idea what the problem is.

of course, this is probably a well known problem and instructors will likely point it out, and ( and I am of course biased in that, because of my "programming background" ) on the other hand, that assigning the variable might have changed the value of i or j can probably be concluded by people dealing with formulas on the daily

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u/Feminintendo Aug 06 '19

So really smart STEM people are smart enough to figure out all the stupid shit Matlab does... Except the T and M parts of STEM, almost none of which use Matlab because they actually have a clue. But the S and E's are so much smarter than those stupid mathematicians that it doesn't matter.

Brilliant argument. "We use inferior tools because we are literally smarter than the people who use better tools."

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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '19

Your math courses don't use MATLAB?

Also, I will put this brilliant argument into my repertoire for when I encounter a rare non-MATLAB person ( sophisticated term for humanities student ), thank you very much.

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u/Feminintendo Aug 07 '19

In graduate school I had to teach a calculus lab with Matlab for the engineering calculus sequence. It was a nightmare for everyone involved. The students learned neither Matlab nor calculus from the assignments. It was a good idea on paper: engineering students would get some exposure to a tool in their field while learning some calculus concept. In practice, figuring out how to write the code was so distracting to them that any calculus benefit was completely lost, and the assignments, being calculus assignments, weren’t nearly sufficient for them to actually learn any useful coding. The problem wasn’t Matlab-specific. We also had a Maple-based version of the course that was just as bad.

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u/I_Feel_It_Too Aug 06 '19

stem people are problem solvers, so they will likely find a solution,

It's not a problem that Matlab is a shitty programming language because STEM people are problem solvers? Really?

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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '19

Yes

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u/I_Feel_It_Too Aug 07 '19

At least we both agree that Matlab is a shitty programming language. Let's get a beer!