Actually stands for
Matrix Laboratory and not for
Mathematics Laboratory, as many thinks. Very easy to get addicted to since it saves a lot of time, but then, you must ask your
employer to buy it and it's
very expensive. Matlab can be seen as a
game where the
goal is to
vectorize your code to
speed it up. When coupled to Simulink, Matlab gets from very
powerful to
inescapably essential.
Lately, The MathWorks' strategy seems to be heading towards making the industry use Matlab at every level from design and development to production, thanks to products like the Matlab Compiler, the Real Time Workshop, the Data Acquisition Toolbox and the Stateflow packages.