title: Array programming/vectorization: faster code?
body: <p>Lately, I've been enjoying <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Array_programming" rel="nofollow">vectorization</a> in Octave: treating vectors/matrices as scalars and don't worry about the underlying looping etc to calculate matrix multiplication and so on.</p>
  
  <p>Someone told me that, next to being less prone to errors, it is also faster because the compiler/interpreter can optimize calculations under the hood.</p>
  
  <p>I don't know why this would be the case. Could anyone shed a light on why vectorization/array programming would be more efficient? It is because calculations can be done in parallel?</p>