Abnet,
If you do not have very much programming experience, I recommend
MATLAB for new program development. It's advantages are that it is a
interpreted language rather than an compiled language and that matrix
manipulations are written similarly to the way we write them on paper.
The advantage of an interpreted language is that you get quick feedback
on errors and the errors are usually easier to understand than errors
identified by a compiler. This means faster program development. The
disadvantage of MATLAB over a compiled language is speed, though I am
told this is less of an issue than it used to be. For initial
development, processing speed should not be a significant concern.

I do not use MATLAB myself. I have used FORTRAN for many years and
am very happy with FORTRAN-90. I also use YORICK for situations where an
interpreted language is much more convenient than FORTRAN. YORICK is
excellent for data processing. I found YORICK a bit difficult to learn,
but wonderful once I have done so. My discussions with others have
convinced me that MATLAB is a better way to start scientific
programming. Experience with MATLAB significantly helps learning to use
a compiled language.

Another language you may want to look at is COMSOL which was previously
sold as FEMLAB. It is a really a higher level package that is based on
MATLAB aimed at solving problems where partial differential equations
are important. I know very little about it, but it seems to have become
very popular. I suspect the decision of COMSOL over MATLAB is cost of
the programs compared to cost of your time. You, of course, can't know
in advance the time advantage of COMSOL over MATLAB. A disadvantage now
is portability of your programming knowledge. MATLAB has been well
established for twenty years and relatively cheap. COMSOL is new, rare
and currently more expensive. So you can readily convince an employer to
buy MATLAB whereas COMSOL may be more difficult to convince them of.

For those who want free software, I am told that OCTAVE is very similar
to MATLAB as is SCILAB. Yorick is also free. I would be very interested
to learn of comparisons of these programs.

Tom Clemo

>
>
> From: hydrologymodel@...
> <mailto:hydrologymodel%40yahoogroups.co.in>
> [mailto:hydrologymodel@...
> <mailto:hydrologymodel%40yahoogroups.co.in>] On Behalf Of abiot89
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 6:54 PM
> To: hydrologymodel@...
> <mailto:hydrologymodel%40yahoogroups.co.in>
> Subject: [hydrologymodel] Dear all
>
> I am doing research on urban runoff modeling; I am expected to develop
> a computer model to predict surface runoff in small urban catchments. I
> don't have any programming experience before, now I am studying few
> programming languages. But I haven't yet decided which programming
> language I have to use. Can anybody give some advice which programming
> language is good for me?
>
> Abnet
>
>