Which programming language should we use for scientific computing?
Here are some results from a large survey of opinion on the features of different languages:
http://hammerprinciple.com/therighttool/items/python/r
http://hammerprinciple.com/therighttool/items/python/matlab
According to the survey responses, R and MATLAB are niche languages, that are harder to learn than Python. R and MATLAB code is less elegant, less readable, harder to maintain and harder to re-use.
In particular, R and MATLAB rate much higher than Python on the question "This language is unusually bad for beginners".
The Google+ URL for this post was https://plus.google.com/+MatthewBrett/posts/HAsy7HWMyc5