Spatial data analysis in MATLAB / Comparison of MATLAB vs R
Dear list, I am preparing to teach spatial data analysis at BSc level (environmental and Earth sciences). The study programme is completely based on MATLAB, which means that I will also need to adjust (I do not have much experience with MATLAB). Or maybe I can give a convincing argument to my colleagues to slowly switch to R? For example, I did a small inventory / comparison between MATLAB and R and came to this small table: GDAL: (R) yes; (MATLAB) limited; Geostatistics: (R) yes; (MATLAB) +; Map plotting: (R) yes; (MATLAB) yes; Integration with GIS: (R) yes; (MATLAB) ?; Overlay and proximity: (R) yes (limited); (MATLAB) ?; Point pattern analysis: (R) yes; (MATLAB) yes; PROJ4: (R) yes; (MATLAB) ?; Spatial data classes: (R) excellent; (MATLAB) ?; Spatial regression: (R) yes; (MATLAB) yes; Vector-raster conversion: (R) limited; (MATLAB) ?; 3D visualization: (R) limited; (MATLAB) yes; Does anybody have more experience with analysis of spatial data in MATLAB? Did anybody maybe produce a more detailed comparison of R vs MATLAB? (I could only find this discussion forum from 2004: http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/04/1284.html) Thanks! **************************** Comparison of the web-traffic for the three statistical software websites: http://trends.google.com/websites?q=r-project.org%2C+mathworks.com%2C+sas.com *Note how R users are much more active during holiday times. :) Comparison of the web-traffic R-project vs ESRI: http://trends.google.com/websites?q=r-project.org%2C+esri.com%2C+osgeo.org *ESRI community seems to be decreasing drastically! R looks stable. **************************** Tom Hengl http://spatial-analyst.net