Thread View: comp.soft-sys.matlab
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Started by Matt Wette
Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:05
FAQ
Author: Matt Wette
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:05
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:05
342 lines
12431 bytes
12431 bytes
This FAQ is maintained by
Matt Wette
M/S 198-326
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Dr.
Pasadena, CA 91109
mwette@csi.jpl.nasa.gov
The latest version can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from
csi.jpl.nasa.gov as /pub/matlab/FAQ
This FAQ is very young and, hence, somewhat incomplete. Contributions
and suggestions on organization are welcomed.
Last update: Tue Jan 26 16:00:54 PST 1993
Matlab Frequently Asked Questions
_________________________________
SYNOPSIS
General
_______
1) What is Matlab?
2) What is the charter for the comp.soft-sys.matlab group?
3) What commercially available Matlab-type environments are sold?
4) What non-commercial Matlab environments exist?
5) How can I join a Matlab user group?
6) Are there any software archives?
7) Are there any publications related to Matlab?
8) Are there any e-mail addresses related to Matlab:
9) What is Simulab?
10) Can I use C and Fortran programs with Matlab?
Other Systems
_____________
11) Are there any standards for Matlab-type tools?
12) What is Xmath?
Quick Little Matlab Eval Hacks
______________________________
13) How can I load-from or save-to a file whose name is in a string variable?
14) How can I make a variable global from within a function?
==============================================================================
General
_______
1) What is Matlab?
Matlab is the name used to refer to the class of matrix cal-
culator environments derived from the first, called MATLAB.
MATLAB was developed by Cleve Moler in the late 1970s at the
University of New Mexico and other locations with support
from the National Science Foundation. Since then, many
clones have been developed or are in development commercial-
ly, in government and university labs, and so forth. In
this document, Matlab may refer to the collective set of
MATLAB_based environment or it may refer to the current im-
plementation developed by The MathWorks, Inc.
2) What is the charter for the comp.soft-sys.matlab group?
The newsgroup 'comp.soft-sys.matlab' is a forum for discuss-
ing issues related to the use of Matlab, the scientific cal-
culation and visualization package from MathWorks Inc. This
includes discussion of similar software packages which are
also derived from the original public domain Matlab, such as
Xmath from Integrated Systems Inc.
Appropriate discussion in the group will include both gen-
eral Matlab issues and platform-specific questions, and dis-
cussion comparing Matlab to other systems.
3) What commercially available Matlab-type environments are sold?
In alphabetical order:
Ctrl-C from Systems Control Technology
CAE Systems Department
2300 Geng Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Tel: 800-227-1910
Tel: 415-494-2233
Fax: 415-496-6595
Pro-Matlab from The MathWorks, Inc.
Cochituate Place
24 Prime Park Way
Natick, MA 01760
508-653-1415
Email: info@mathworks.com
Xmath from Integrated Systems, Inc.
3260 Jay St.
Santa Clara, CA 95054-3309
Tel: (408) 980-1500
Fax: (408) 980-0400
Email: xmath-info@isi.com
4) What non-commercial Matlab environments exist?
In alphabetical order:
`Caesy' is being developed by Matt Wette
(mwette@csi.jpl.nasa.gov) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This will be released to COSMIC soon. It will provide data
structures, conversion to C-code, and many other features.
See
M.Wette
"Caesy: A Computer-Aided Engineering System"
Proc. 1992 Symp. on Computer-Aided Control System Design
Napa, CA, March 1992
`Mat/C' developed at Lawrence Livermore National Labora-
tories by Don Gavel. This is not publically available.
`MaTX', an interpreter and compiler, developed at Tokyo In-
stitute of Technology. See
M. Koga and K. Furuta, "MaTX: A High-Performance Programming
Language (Interpreter and Compiler) for Scientific and
Engineering Computation," Proc. 1992 Symp. on Computer-Aided
Control System Design, Napa, CA, March 1992
`Octave', written at the University of Texas, is available
via anonymous ftp from
ftp.che.utexas.edu in /pub/octave/octave-M.N.tar.Z
where M and N stand for version numbers. For more informa-
tion contact
John W. Eaton
jwe@che.utexas.edu
Department of Chemical Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
`RLab', written by Ian Searle, is free software.
`SFPACK' developed at the University of Waterloo by Grantham
Pang (pang@watale.waterloo.edu). See
G.K.H. Pang, M. Vidyasagar, A.J. Heunis,
"Development of a New Generation of Interactive CACSD,"
IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Vol. 10, No. 5, Aug, 1990.
5) How can I join a Matlab user group?
To join the user group, send your name, affiliation and ad-
dress to:
matlab-users-request@mcs.anl.gov
For European user groups, contact:
France: Alain Baron
phone: 33/1 45 34 23 91
fax: 33/1 45 07 08 06
Germany: Dr. Ingrid Baush-Gall
phone: 49/89 323 2625
fax: 49/89 323 1063
Sweden: Svante Littmarck
phone: 46/8 15 30 22
fax: 48/8 15 76 35
email: info@comsol.se
Switzerland: Carl Bergstrom
phone: 031/961 70 11
fax: 031/961 12 82
email: comsol@clients.switch.ch
UK: Peter Campbell
phone: 44/22 342 0722
fax: 44/32 342 3580
6) Are there any software archives?
Yes. Matlab User Group software archive contains more than
1MB of user-contributed code. This archive is located on
NETLIB server of Oak Ridge National Laboratories. To learn
more, send following message:
send index
send index from matlab
to:
netlib@ornl.gov
For contributions to the archive, send e-mail to:
matlab-users-request@mcs.anl.gov
7) Are there any publications related to Matlab?
Yes, Math Works Inc. publishes a quarterly magazine called
MathWorks Newsletter, giving info. on products (new ver-
sions, releases, toolboxes), matlab user group, matlab short
courses, related texts etc.
8) Are there any e-mail addresses related to Matlab:
Yes. Some are:
- tech@mathworks.com :technical support for MathWorks products
- suggest@mathworks.com :product enhancement suggestions
- bugs@mathworks.com :bug reports
- doc@mathworks.com :documentation error reports
- register@mathworks.com :user and product registration
- info@mathworks.com :sales, pricing, general info.
- netlib@ornl.gov :software archive contact (see below)
- matlab-users-request@mcs.anl.gov : user group (see below)
9) What is Simulab?
Simulab is a program from MathWorks for modelling and
analyzing nonlinear dynamic systems. Built on Matlab, Simu-
lab offers a wide range of capabilities for simulating
linear, nonlinear, continuous, discrete and hybrid models.
Simulab is suited for designing and analyzing automatic con-
trol systems, yet it is also appropriate for anyone in-
terested in gaining insight into the behavior of real-world
systems. [MWorks Newsletter Spring 1991]
Simulab is renamed as Simulink when added improved and new
capabilities.
10) Can I use C and Fortran programs with Matlab?
Matlab's MEX-file facility allows user to use C and Fortran
subroutines as Matlab m-files. It is also possible to use
Matlab as a computational engine for C/Fortran subroutines.
Other Systems
_____________
11) Are there any standards for Matlab-type tools?
There is an IFAC/IEEE-CSS Working Group developing standards
and guidelines for these tools. A proposed standard command
language was developed, is described in the document "Com-
mand Language Standard for CACSD Software" and is available
from
Magnus Rimvall
Control Systems Laboratory, GE-CRD
Schenectady, NY 12301
12) What is Xmath?
From mesaros@isi.com: Xmath is an interactive mathematics,
scripting, and graphics environment for X Window worksta-
tions. It has features which represent a significant im-
provement on matlab-type software tools, including:
- Object-oriented scripting language.
- "Point-and-click" color graphics.
- Visual debugging tool.
- LNX and C-callable libraries.
- Programmable MOTIF GUI layer.
Xmath from Integrated Systems Inc. is available on the In-
ternet via FTP from isi.com. If you would like to download
Xmath to view the Xmath Interactive demo, do the following:
From the UNIX/Shell environment, type:
ftp isi.com (if the host is unknown, try ftp 192.73.222.1)
When asked for name/user, type:
anonymous
When asked for the password, simply type your e-mail address.
Once your e-mail address is accepted, and if the maximum
number of ftp clients has not been exceeded, the connection
will be made and a list of instructions will appear. Simply
follow that list of instructions to transfer a copy of Xmath
to your system.
Quick Little Matlab Eval Hacks
______________________________
13) How can I load-from or save-to a file whose name is in a string variable?
From Matt Wette <mwette@csi.jpl.nasa.gov>, works with Pro-
Matlab v3.5:
name = 'xyz.mat';
eval(['save ', name]);
eval(['load ', name]);
14) How can I make a variable global from within a function?
Adopted from routines by Laura Needles and Mike Kantner
(<lohrah@csi.jpl.nasa.gov> and <rainbow@csi.jpl.nasa.gov>).
First define the script file `mkglobal.m', containing the
following:
function [] = mkglobal(var)
% MKGLOBAL mkglobal(var) - make string var a global
% variable (within a function)
if ~exist('mkglobal_var'), mkglobal_1; end;
mkglobal_var = var;
mkglobal_2
Then define the script file `mkglobal_1.m' as
global mkglobal_var
and the script file `mkglobal_2.m' as
eval(['global ', mkglobal_var]);
This works with Pro-Matlab v3.5. The problem with globals
has been fixed in Pro-Matlab v4.0.
--
mwette@csi.jpl.nasa.gov
Linking C with Matlab?
Author: Tom White
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 18:45
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 18:45
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1451 bytes
From the recently posted FAQ: > >10) Can I use C and Fortran programs with Matlab? > > Matlab's MEX-file facility allows user to use C and Fortran > subroutines as Matlab m-files. It is also possible to use > Matlab as a computational engine for C/Fortran subroutines. > I am a student at the University of Georgia and have recently purchaced the student edition of Matlab for MS-DOS machines. I was hoping that Matlab would be able to be compiled into object code or translated into C so that I could link it with my programs. The manual only mentions how to read the 'LOAD/SAVE' files, and shelling out of my application, loading matlab, etc. is way to costly. So my question: How does one efficiently use Matlab as a program's "computational engine" in demanding applications like 3D graphics routines? Is generating object code (or C translations) possible in the Professional version? Through any Shareware, etc.? Advance Thanks, -Tom
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