title: How do I interact with MATLAB from Python?
body: <p>A friend asked me about creating a small web interface that accepts some inputs, sends them to MATLAB for number crunching and outputs the results. I'm a Python/Django developer by trade, so I can handle the web interface, but I am clueless when it comes to MATLAB. Specifically:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>I'd <strong>really</strong> like to avoid hosting this on a Windows server. Any issues getting MATLAB running in Linux with scripts created on Windows?</li>
  <li>Should I be looking into shelling out commands or compiling it to C and using <code>ctypes</code> to interact with it?</li>
  <li>If compiling is the way to go, is there anything I should know about getting it compiled and working in Python? (It's been a long time since I've compiled or worked with C)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Any suggestions, tips, or tricks on how to pull this off?</p>