Re: [Gretl-devel] Gretl's current standing

Talha, Rather than answer your question as written -- clearly gretl is "better" than all competitors ;-) -- here are a few of the major differences I've noticed compared to Matlab: 1) Gretl treats series and vectors as different data types, whereas Matlab treats everything as a matrix. This really bugged me at first, but I've gotten better at working around it. I haven't used RATS since v5, but at that point it too had different data types. 2) Matlab's multi-dimensional arrays can come in very handy for things like impulse response functions or storing simulation results. 3) I hope to check this formally soon, I welcome contrary evidence, but my feeling is that Matlab is faster at things like Monte Carlo simulation. 4) Matlab's graphics are easier to work with in some ways, although I like gretl's editing menu better. This is really more of a Matlab/gnuplot comparison than Matlab/gretl though. 5) Apart from getting used to the issues raised by point 1, I've found that my experience writing Matlab code applies quite easily to writing hansl scripts. 6) I haven't used it much yet, but the 'bundle' construct in gretl is very welcome to those of us used to working with Matlab 'structures.' 7) There's obviously a great deal more code available out there for Matlab than gretl. Maybe your army can help with that (and I hope to also!). HTH, PS -----Original Message----- From: gretl-devel-bounces(a)lists.wfu.edu [mailto:gretl-devel-bounces@lists.wfu.edu] On Behalf Of Talha Yalta Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 11:16 AM To: Gretl development Subject: [Gretl-devel] Gretl's current standing First, I apologize if I have offended anyone in my earlier posts. I have tremendous respect for everyone in this list and I would never intend to do such things. Also, I am probably the youngest in the list and I am thankful for your patience. In the next few months, I will be giving a series of one week (40 hrs) intensive "applied econometrics with gretl" type of trainings to a large group of professionals from different government agencies. (I am raising an army of like-minded, comma and GUI loving gretl users. Just you wait :-) Since there is a high chance that some people will ask questions like "Is gretl any better than Package X?" I wanted to pick your brain on gretl's current standing in the _commercial_ competition. These people are mostly familiar with Eviews, Stata, GAUSS, MATLAB, SAS, WinRATS and mainly with Eviews and Stata. (I know some of these packages should not be compared with gretl and I know the advantages of free and open source software). I appreciate any comments and suggestions. Cheers Talha -- "An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Niels Bohr (1885-1962) -- _______________________________________________ Gretl-devel mailing list Gretl-devel(a)lists.wfu.edu http://lists.wfu.edu/mailman/listinfo/gretl-devel