IMHO, I feel Matlab is too clunky and inelegant for data transformation compared to APL-inspired languages, which needs a slightly mathematically inclined user to appreciate and unleash it&#x27;s true power, with 10 times less code.<p>The biggest advantage of a language like Q is that it&#x27;s inherently parallel. Map-reduce is naturally built into the language, so this allows the users to think in terms of breaking problems down into sub-problems and parallelizing them via the &quot;parallel apply&quot; construct[1]<p>Also another very powerful feature is the braindead simplicity of Inter process communication between KDB+ instances [2]<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;code.kx.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Reference&#x2F;peach" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;code.kx.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Reference&#x2F;peach</a>
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;code.kx.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Startingkdbplus&#x2F;ipc" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;code.kx.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Startingkdbplus&#x2F;ipc</a><p>This makes a real difference in ad-hoc environments where you want to setup and tear down complex trading software in real-time