use-revolution digest, Vol 1 #824 - 8 msgs

[Jmicha5059 at aol.com]

Most fMRI analyses are now done with SPM.  This system uses scripts in Matlab 
and very few C routines.  Matlab scripts are about as far from programminmg 
as you can get.  The attitude that "serious" programming is done only with 
procedural languages is just a sentiment expressed by people who have beat 
their heads against the wall of badly designed programming systems who now 
realize that object-oriented scripting systems do the same job without the 
bloody mess on the wall.

Mike Williams
http://www.brainmetric.com

In a message dated 11/9/02 11:56:52 AM, 
use-revolution-request at lists.runrev.com writes:

<< Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 08:26:33 -0700
To: use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
From: Oliver Hardt <hardt at u.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: Building "serious" scientific applications with RunRev...
Reply-To: use-revolution at lists.runrev.com

i do not agree with the general statement "if you want to program a 
serious scientific app, you better learn C".  from my experience that 
is true only for some problems.  for example, if you would like to 
analyze fMRI data with an algorithm of your own, well, you'll better 
learn C.  and sometimes you need structures (struct in C, record in 
pascal) in order to model more complex data, then C or pascal is the 
better choice (for example if you want to do some complex modelling). 
but RR can be used successfully for scientific applications -- i am 
an experimental psychologist and use it nearly everyday:  i prepare 
my data for later analysis (clean up files, merge data, rearrange 
files), create my experiments, manage some databases.  it probably 
isn't the best tool to do 3d live rendering, but about that i am not 
sure.  on the other hand, perhaps the stuff i do is not considered 
"serious" science ...
best, olli. >>