In episode 21, we interviewed Juan Pablo Carbajal, an Argentinian physicist currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Urban Water Management at the ETH domain in Switzerland. We had a great discussion about GNU Octave and how it can help scientists. We compared its core functions and its expandability through packages to its commercial equivalent Matlab and its toolboxes. An interesting feature of GNU Octave that we explored with Juan is the possibility to migrate code from Matlab directly to GNU Octave and to a certain point maintain code compatible with both. Juan shared with us that since the introduction of an integrated GUI in 2015, he noticed a continuous growth in popularity for the project. We then discussed about a few of the reasons why companies are interested by GNU Octave and why universities should teach using free/libre software. Before asking our usual quick questions, Juan talked with us about the reasons why FLOSS is important for science and the importance of exposing non-FLOSS users to the benefits of FLOSS.

00:00:00 Message to our listeners00:00:29 Intro00:00:45 Introducing Juan Pablo Carbajal00:01:32 30 seconds elevator pitch for GNU Octave00:02:20 How does the Octave programming language compares to other common programming languages00:03:23 Compatibility between GNU Octave and Matlab00:06:29 Matlab's toolboxes compared to GNU Octave packages00:07:31 Simulink models with GNU Octave00:09:06 Parallel processing with GNU Octave00:10:40 The issue with CUDA in GNU Octave00:11:48 How GNU Octaves differs rom other open source Matlab equivalents00:13:34 Syntax compatibility to ease transition and reusing code from Matlab00:15:11 Resources to start using GNU Octave00:16:40 GNU Octave's graphical user interface and the old QT Octave GUI00:20:14 GNU Octave's graphical user interface compared to Matlab00:22:11 Why GNU Octave and not simply Octave00:23:06 GNU Octave licence00:24:01 How often he uses GNU Octave00:24:18 Juan's numerous contributions to the project00:25:27 GNU octave for companies00:27:45 Arguments for teaching with GNU Octave instead of Matlab00:29:32 How many are involved in the project?00:30:37 Communication channels within the project00:31:34 Is the project actively looking for developers?00:32:11 Skills required to contribute00:33:14 The two-level language dilemma00:34:59 Juan's vision about FLOSS and its importance for science00:37:09 Possible negative impacts of FLOSS and converting non-FLOSS users00:40:17 The most notable scientific discovery in recent years00:41:46 Juan's favourite text processing tools00:42:38 Things we forgot to ask about00:43:57 Anything else to share?00:44:25 How to contact Juan00:44:50 Outro