IDL vs. MathCad

Вот что мне уже давненько попалось в инете
(там конечно правильнее сравнивают
idl vs. matlab а не idl vs. mathcad все-таки)

Comparison of IDL and Matlab by Amara Graps

IDL is a package that began life as an image-processing utility that has
grown to be a general-purpose numerical analysis tool. Matlab started as
a numerical analysis package that now includes [at extra cost] image
processing tools. Now the two have a similar scientific data-analysis
environment, with capabililties to build GUI programs and do very robust
data analysis. Both of these programs are useful in physics, astronomy,
image and signal processing, mapping, medical imaging, statistics, and
other technical disciplines requiring visualization of large amounts of
data.
Functionality and the Programming Language

IDL is more of a true programming language. Matlab has scripts and
functions and no way to explicitly type a variable. IDL has programs,
procedures, and functions and a language syntax sort of like a cross
between Fortran, Pascal, and APL. If you have programmed in Fortran
before, then the syntax will be a snap to learn. Matlab's syntax is much
more compact than IDL's. For example: x = transpose(y) in IDL is x=y' in
Matlab. My main complaint about Matlab is just the non-standardness of
the syntax. Being able to call a function that actually has no output
variables, or to not be able to explicitly type a variable seems wierd to
me, and it has caused me some hassles in converting code between Matlab
and IDL. Of course the non-standardness of the programming syntax
impinges very little on how useful this package is, so you should
probably this as just my personal preference.

Matlab has many more built-in, intrinsic functions than IDL.
MathWorks, the company that makes MatLab, has a thriving business
selling Toolkits, such as a Signal Processing Toolkit and an Image
Processing Toolkit, which are libraries of more intrinsic functions.

IDL can easily read virtually any data structure using existing
procedures, and the later versions of IDL have even more file format
functions built in such as GIF, PICT, and HDF. You can also write your
own (and people have, for example, FITS format readers are available at
the various IDL anonymous FTP sites). MATLAB's file functions to read
oddly formatted data sets is a tricky process.

Also my personal opinion is that general directory file I/O in IDL is easy
and painless and Matlab's stinks. For example, to go to a directory and
select all files with a a ".dat" suffix, IDL has a ready-made function
to select files based on a string criteria, but Matlab has no way to do this
if you are running on a non-Unix machine. I honestly don't know how people
do large batch file processing on non-Unix machines in Matlab.

Graphics

The graphics in Matlab are quite beautiful, and I think it is nicer than
the graphics output in IDL. Matlab has more types of graph types than
IDL, and handling colors is simpler than IDL. However, I found most
other Matlab graphical programming non-intuitive. It uses a system where
each element in a graph is an "object." These objects can have
sub-objects. So to change an element in a graph, say the axis color, you
have to first find the object (a "get" function), and then set it to the
color you want. IDL has system variables storing all graphics elements
which can be easily changed. One can also customize a graph upon making
the graph, with a keyword.

Вижу я, что IDL никто толком и не видел. Мой опыт работы на нем уже 3 года и без проблем решаю практически любые задачи. Не скажу что задачи супер так как занимаюсь обработкой больших массивов и моделированием атмосферных процессов но и не самые простенькие. Что касается скорости, то скорость вычислений вполне сопоставима с Фортраном. Функциональная мощность последних версий матлабу не уступает. А простота использования пожалуй наилучшая из всего на чем работал. Резюмирую - лично мне очень нравится IDL.