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goshawk
USA
1 Posts |
 Posted - 05/24/2001 : 01:42:41 AM
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Hello everyone,
Please do not mistake this post as an intent to start a heated discussion, but I am rather interested in why people choose [or chose] Origin over much of the "competition" such as MatLab, Igor Pro, IDL, etc.
To phrase it another way, why would you refuse to use another program besides Origin? Or, do you use it to complement a battery of other programs you use?
I am mostly interested in gritty details and not meaningless and global statements such as "X program stinks" or "Y program doesn't do analysis very well". So, if you could spare some of your time, I would be most appreciative.
Thanks!
-- Art
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Mike Buess
USA
3037 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2001 : 11:57:07 AM
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I started doing NMR data analysis and graphing in Windows about seven or eight years ago. In the beginning I tried MatLab, Origin, an Origin-like program called Axum and even spreadsheet programs like Quattro Pro. I started getting results quickest and with the least pain in Origin, so I tended to use it more often than the others. As I became more familiar with LabTalk I found that all of my analysis could be done in Origin. Since it is also easy to produce publication quality graphics with Origin I now use it exclusively. In short, learning curve and productivity were the major reasons that I settled on Origin. Price helped as well - I can afford a personal copy of Origin, but probably not MatLab.
I wouldn't refuse to use another program, but it would have to do something I need that can't be done (or done as easily) in Origin. As with many other types of software (Wordperfect vs Word comes to mind), I imagine that the general tendancy among users is to stick with what's comfortable and familiar. But maybe that's just my age showing. 
-Mike |
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CStorey
Canada
137 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 1:12:12 PM
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The lab I worked in during the summers in university had a copy of MathCad, MatLab, GNUplot, Kaleidagraph and Origin. My supervisor left the choise up to us as to which package we used. Several other students and I chose Origin because we could save graph templates of customized plots which greately reduced the time required to make presentation ready gaphs. As far as we were concerned it offered the biggest time saving and convenient features. Later I went to work for a research lab, which also used Origin. They had developped some simple LabTalk scripts for automating some data analysis. LabTalk is a lot like C and in very little time I developped some pretty sophisticated data plotting/analysis for our routine data. And unlike most Windows program Origin use very little HD space for either the program or it's data files (Projects).
So the bottom line for me is that no other plotting package, that I've used, has re-useable graph/worksheet templates a sofisticated scripting language and the curve fitting, multiple plotting types, DDE server that Origin offers.
Hope this helps,
Craig Storey
Origin WebRing Member: http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=originwebring
HTML Generator for Origin: http://65.108.80.167/origin/htmlgenie.htm
Edited by - Cstorey on 05/25/2001 13:15:53 |
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Origin versus the other guys