The Julia Language

Is Julia "ready" to replace Matlab and Fortran?
  • The language? Yes
  • The environment (e.g. tools, infrastructure, online help, etc.)? Not for everyone quite yet.
The language is now stable but the environment is rough compared to the Matlab IDE. However, consider starting to learn Julia now if you are
  • A PhD student in your first 2 years
  • A researcher working on computationally intensive applications (e.g. you use Fortran, or run Matlab for days at a time)
  • Someone who relies on specialized pacakges to solve problems (e.g. differential equations)
  • Have a general interest in computational economics,
A good place to start with Julia is our online textbook: Quantitative Economics with Julia

Useful Matlab Resources

Until Julia replaces Matlab...
  • CompEcon. Old and not open-source, but useful.
  • Chebfun . Powerful approach to solving functional equations
  • Tomlab. Commerical matlab optimizer framework that has allows me to solve complicated problems. I typically use NPSOL and Knitro with auto-differentiation using MAD.

Some Neat Julia Packages

Some Julia packages to get a flavor for what the language can make possible