SIO 221C: Software Options
Matlab is the software package that students most often use for this
course, but you are free to choose any software package or combination
of packages that you like, provided that you can carry out
computations, invert matrices, and plot results. (http://www.mathworks.com/)
Alternatives to Matlab include:
- Octave: a freeware imitator of Matlab, uses almost the
same
commands. (http://www.octave.org/)
- Scilab: another freeware imitator of Matlab (http://www-rocq.inria.fr/scilab/)
- Fortran, c, or c++: compiled
languages.
Run faster than Matlab for some applications,
- Lapack/linpack: Fortran-based matrix inversion
packages. (http://www.netlib.org/lapack/)
- csh, awk, perl: Non-compiled scripting languages.
Sometimes
very efficient for transforming columns of numbers. (Not good for
matrix
inversion.)
- GMT: Generic Mapping Tool. Free unix
command-line
software developed for geophysical graphics. (http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/)
If you need a copy of Matlab (either for your office or for your
personal
computer), you can buy the student version at the UCSD bookstore.
You
may also want to buy the student version as a way to get a full set of
manuals.
Don't use Matlab's older "student edition", which prohibits large
matrices and may
thwart your ability to get through the problems assigned for this
course.