Getting linear algebra in a programming language close to math formulas was, for a long time, my reason to use Octave.

When I first read about Julia, I was really amazed - especially the type system with its multiple dispatching and not automatically converting between types (e.g., between integers and floats). Though, I do not know, how Julia is today.

Today, I use Python instead of Octave (or Julia) - just because it has a large ecosystem and is widely adopted. An additional advantage is that Python has much better OOP features than Octave had back then.

However, I wished Julia had the status that Python has today.