> "The part where Julia kicks in now is the point that Matlab has a lot of market ground, especially with engineers who are not extraordinarily passionate about programing. For some people the burden of learning another syntax is just too big, they are not full time programmers but spend their time more with acquiring data and using the results. I really hope that some of them who are not willing to switch to scientific python can agree on switching to Julia."
As I see it, this will be Julia's main market. Younger engineers (read: "non-CS engineering students", i.e. electrical, mechanical, civil, etc) may encounter Python in college and become proficient in it, but because of historical reasons most of their assignments require some combination of Matlab, C, or Fortran. Even in group projects where the students have more independence with their choice of tools, if only one person in the group knows Python, the group will probably default to one of the common tools. When time is a scarce resource and time spent learning Python doesn't show much promise of improving your class performance, most students will neglect it.
Julia, at first glance, looks very familiar to a practicing engineer or scientist who is experienced with Matlab or Octave. It's the sort of thing that you could teach yourself in a weekend, and teach others at work if need be. Not necessarily the low level cleverness of the language or some of the more advanced uses of it, but enough to Get Stuff Done(TM). And that's what matters to most technical types without a background in CS. They will appreciate elegance and safety when they see it, but they're not going to decide what tools to use based on those factors.
You cannot overestimate enough how old folks growing up with Fortran just won't accept Array indizes starting at 0 instead of 1.
Then because professors demand it, colleges buy Matlab campus licenses and "encourage" their staff/students to use it, incorporate in teaching and research.
Sadly, when the student is not on campus anymore, he/she cannot reevaluate old date and in the new job they then demand a matlab license. Its the Matlab tax.
As I see it, this will be Julia's main market. Younger engineers (read: "non-CS engineering students", i.e. electrical, mechanical, civil, etc) may encounter Python in college and become proficient in it, but because of historical reasons most of their assignments require some combination of Matlab, C, or Fortran. Even in group projects where the students have more independence with their choice of tools, if only one person in the group knows Python, the group will probably default to one of the common tools. When time is a scarce resource and time spent learning Python doesn't show much promise of improving your class performance, most students will neglect it.
Julia, at first glance, looks very familiar to a practicing engineer or scientist who is experienced with Matlab or Octave. It's the sort of thing that you could teach yourself in a weekend, and teach others at work if need be. Not necessarily the low level cleverness of the language or some of the more advanced uses of it, but enough to Get Stuff Done(TM). And that's what matters to most technical types without a background in CS. They will appreciate elegance and safety when they see it, but they're not going to decide what tools to use based on those factors.