I've downloaded Mathics onto my Mac, unpacked it, installed it and tested it without issue. The web interface works well too. I'm very impressed with this software and appreciate all their efforts, especially what appear to be well commented sources. To complain that a better notation could have been used is to completely miss the point. This is for people who would like to use Mathematica syntax but can't afford the licence. I've got four books on Mathematica, but can't remotely afford to purchase it.
Not true at all:
1) Operators acting on a distribution: E[X], Var[X], Cov[X,Y]
2) Square brackets are used in nested parentheses to avoid confusion: [1(2 + 3) + 4]/5
3) Functionals: L[f] for lagrangian
The main reason why [] isn't used as frequently as () is because most domains interpret the square brackets to mean something special. For example:
1) [x] is often used to denote floor(x)
2) [i=j] is used to denote the kronecker delta
What I must point out is you make a weak case based on myopia- for example; in 15 years of working with tens of thousands of hours of high resolution radiometrics I've never once met and talked to a dendrochronologist who's looked at the radiometric signature of individual bands of Japanese pine trees.
It's my understanding that such beasts do exist.
I think it must depend on the professor/university.
Also Matlab's documentation is often not complete, frequently requiring Google searches. I have rarely needed that with Mathematica.
My core reasons to use Matlab at times are:
1. More toolboxes, including those from third-parties 2. More team members familiar with Matlab than Mathematica