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Matlab / Simulink will doubtlessly have a very long tail, but is being overtaken by Python. For one thing, programming is gaining ground in areas that have no established loyalty to Matlab, and those are growing areas. Such as the life sciences. For another, a certain fraction of students want to test the waters and see if they can explore software development as a career option. Python is more relevant to that option than Matlab.

But Simulink does continue to rule its own roost. I think the users see themselves more as engineers than as software developers. And engineers are more inured to using awkward tools.

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miohtama 3 months ago | parent [-]

Python is also open source.

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analog31 3 months ago | parent [-]

Indeed, and that's an attraction even despite Matlab being effectively "free" due to generous academic site licenses. But people are catching on that open source means more than "free" as in beer. I think it has also encouraged what we've seen, the flourishing ecosystem of libraries, tools, tutorials, etc., that really make Python what is. People don't want to pour their heart and soul into something that somebody else owns.

	▲	robocat 3 months ago \| parent [-]
		> People don't want to pour their heart and soul into something that somebody else owns. Plus the soul of academia is openess and sharing (perhaps trending towards closed IP and privatisation).