It's pretty much already decently configured out of the box, so you spend little time playing with build and project configuration and there's a debugger built-in. Syntax is straightforward and the language is pretty optimized so it doesn't take long to get a working simulation for an engineering major.
It breaks down horribly for larger projects however.
Agreed it is mostly used interactively in the IDE. FWIW one can compile into p-code (=underlying virtual machine), package the p-code files of the application with the matlab standalone engine+libraries (MCR), and deploy using standard shell tools (e.g make with Makefile).
I don't have extensive experience with Matlab's toolboxes, but my impression is that most toolboxes without graphical interface (e.g., optimization, signal processing) have an octave equivalent with the same function names and mostly compatible. What is missing are the "gui" toolkits like simulink, the circuit stuff, etc.
It's pretty much already decently configured out of the box, so you spend little time playing with build and project configuration and there's a debugger built-in. Syntax is straightforward and the language is pretty optimized so it doesn't take long to get a working simulation for an engineering major.
It breaks down horribly for larger projects however.