[R] The old question: R vs MATLAB vs...: image analysis

[Oleg Sklyar]

For "image analysis" and general image processing in R, please check 
EBImage from bioconductor (www.bioconductor.org). Best, Oleg

Ben Bolker wrote:
> Ali - <saveez <at> hotmail.com> writes:
> 
>> R introduces itself as a 'statistical' language and environment. There are 
>> many discussions about comparing R to MATLAB or mathematica (or other 
>> similar software). It seems to me that these other software have a broader 
>> range of applications. For example, in Mathematica one can solve a partial 
>> differential equation numberically or do image processing, or, one can 
>> connect a data acquisition card to MATLAB to acquire data from a measurement 
>> and analyse the results.
>>
>> - Does R already provide such facilities?
> 
> some ...
> 
> RSiteSearch("image analysis")
> http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02a/archive/69200.html
>   
> RSiteSearch("PDE") -- suggests not much in the way
> of numeric PDE solutions
> 
> RSiteSearch("data acquisition") -- suggests not much (but see
> http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02a/archive/81317.html )
> 
> 
>> - Was R design to be merely a statistical tool or was it designed with an 
>> idea of a general mathematical tool in mind?
> 
>   It was designed as a "language and environment for statistical computing and
> graphics".  However, since it provides interfaces to routines written
> in other languages (Tcl/Tk, C, Fortran, ...) and other programs
> (databases, GIS, etc.), it can do lots of other things.
> 
>> - If the answer to the above is no, can R already be extended to include the 
>> missing features simply by extra packages 
> 
>   yes.
> 
> or does it need some rational 
> [???]
>> changes to support these features?
> 
>    no.
> 
>    You should think about why you want to extend R in these
> ways.  If you already have access to Mathematica/MATLAB and
> are happy with their capabilities, you should just use them.
> Perhaps you can't afford them; are there other free/open
> tools that do what you want?  If so, you should think about
> using them, or perhaps writing interfaces between them and
> R.
> 
>   cheers
>     Ben Bolker
> 
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-- 
Dr Oleg Sklyar * EBI/EMBL, Cambridge CB10 1SD, England * +44-1223-494466