MATLAB Late-Breaking News Help Desk

MATLAB 5 Late-Breaking News


Getting Started

Installation

Install your copy of MATLAB 5 into an empty directory. Do not install over a previously installed version of MATLAB.

Supported Platforms

MS Windows

MATLAB for Windows is designed to be run in 386-enhanced mode on any IBM, Compaq, or 100 percent compatible system with an Intel (or compatible) processor running Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 95. MATLAB for Windows is a full 32-bit application.

In addition to Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 95, this version of MATLAB requires the following minimum configuration:

The following items are strongly recommended

UNIX

Minimum system resources:

Other system requirements depend on the particular UNIX platform on which you are running MATLAB.

Sun SPARC (SunOS 4)

Sun SPARC (Solaris 2)

HP 9000

DEC Alpha

IBM RS/6000

Silicon Graphics (SGI)

Silicon Graphics (SGI64)

Linux

Macintosh

Macintosh is distributed on CD-ROM only. MATLAB for the Macintosh is designed to run on:

MATLAB will not run on a Macintosh with a 68LC040 microprocessor.

In addition, the following system configuration is recommended for this version of MATLAB:

Help Desk

The MathWorks Help Desk is an enhanced Help facility that provides access to online help topics, online reference materials, electronic documentation, and World Wide Web pages through a Web browser. You do not need to be connected to the Internet to use this facility.

Windows and Macintosh users can access this facility via the Help menu or the ? icon on the Command Window toolbar. Users on all platforms can access this facility via the doc command.

Platform Issues

Currently the Help Desk should be used with Netscape Navigator Release 3.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 (the Help Desk does not work as well with earlier releases of those products).

When invoked from Microsoft Internet Explorer, the index search facility generates HTML output that takes the place of the Help Desk page in the browser's page hierarchy. Consequently, the Back button or hyperlinks to the Help Desk will not work as expected. To return to the Help Desk from the index search page, use the Refresh button. Also, the search may not work correctly when invoked the first time over a slow network; subsequent searches will work correctly.

Note the JIT compiler must be disabled to run the index search applet under Internet Explorer. To turn off JIT, click the View menu and then click Options. Select the Advanced tab, and then deselect the checkbox labeled Enable Java JIT Compiler.

On the 68K Macintosh, the index search facility requires Netscape 3.0. In addition, the index search facility is extremely slow on the 68K
Macintosh.

MATLAB Documentation

The MATLAB documentation set has been rewritten, expanded, and divided into several volumes for ease of use. The set currently consists of online help, as well as hypertext-based manuals.

Platform-Specific Issues

Microsoft Windows

Printing Under MS-Windows

Before you can print from a Microsoft or Novell NetWare network environment under Windows 95 or NT, you must map the LPT1 port to the printer you want to use.

To map LPT1 on Microsoft networks, issue this command at the system's command prompt:

where server is the name of the server sharing the printer and printer is the name of the printer.

On Novell NetWare networks, use this command:

where printer is the name of the print queue.

If you are using a Microsoft network, you can map LPT1, or you can edit the printopt function to change the definition of pcmd to:

where server is the name of the server sharing the printer and printer is the name of the printer.

Problems Printing Using Z-Buffer
If your system takes an excessively long time to print Z-buffer figures, you may need to switch to painters model.

MS-Windows Characteristics That May Change

This section lists some specific characteristics of MATLAB for MS- Windows that are likely to change in future releases.

Also note that MATLAB 5 running with MS-Windows NT requires NT version 3.51 (not 3.5).

Macintosh

Additional Information

See the README file for additional information concerning MATLAB for Macintosh.

UNIX

Using license.dat for UNIX Installations

To expedite the installation of the software, we have included the license.dat file needed to install the software on the CD-ROM.

Copy this file from the CD-ROM into the file $MATLAB/etc/license.dat before proceeding with your installation.

UNIX Installation Messages

You may safely ignore these messages.

Printing with Ghostscript Drivers

The print command does not currently work using Ghostscript drivers on the HP700, DEC Alpha, and IBM RS6000 platforms.

API Characteristics That May Change in Future Releases

This section lists some specific characteristics of the MATLAB 5 API (Application Program Interface) that are likely to change in future releases.

Notes for MATLAB 5 Beta Users

Read this section only if you have worked with Alpha or Beta versions of MATLAB 5, and are now working with the FCS (First Customer Ship) version of MATLAB 5.

This section describes features and characteristics of MATLAB 5 that were introduced during the MATLAB 5 Alpha/Beta program that have changed either during the MATLAB 5 Alpha/Beta program or in the MATLAB 5 FCS version.

The material presented in this Late-Breaking News describes some aspects of the MATLAB 5 language not currently mentioned elsewhere in the documentation.

The MATLAB 5 features are discussed in the MATLAB 5 New Features Guide. If you have previously used MATLAB 4, you will be particularly interested in the section "Upgrading to Version 5.0."

Language Feature Changes

argname Function Changed to inputname

The argname function has been renamed to the inputname function.

bittest Function Renamed bitget

The bittest function has been renamed bitget.

bug Function Removed

The function bug, which during the MATLAB Alpha/Beta program enabled you to create a bug report, has been removed for FCS. Use the Help Desk, as described in the section "Help Desk", above.

extract Function Removed

The function extract, which extracted cell array contents, has been removed. Use direct cell array indexing with the { } notation to access the contents of an array.

fields.m File Renamed fieldnames.m

The M-file fields.m has been renamed fieldnames.m.

numeric Function Removed

The numeric function has been removed. Use double to convert a character into its numeric codes.

rightjust Function Renamed to strjust

The function rightjust, which right-justifies a character array, has been renamed strjust.

structs Function Combined into struct

The function structs, which creates structures, has been combined into struct.

Graphics Feature Changes

Axes Stretch Property Removed

The Axes Stretch property has been removed. MATLAB now disables the stretch-to-fill behavior whenever the Axes DataAspectRatioMode, PlotBoxAspectRatioMode, or CamerViewAngleMode is set to manual. Note that specifying a value for the DataAspectRatio, PlotBoxAspectRatio, or CamerViewAngle sets the associated mode to manual.

Axes ViewPortScale and ViewPortScaleMode Properties Removed

The functionality that was embodied in the ViewPortScale property is now achievable using the CameraViewAngle property. Note that setting ViewPortScale to 1 is equivalent to using the new zoom fill option.

ChangeFcn and CurrentProperty Properties Removed

The ChangeFcn and CurrentProperty properties have been removed.

bar and barh Functions Changed

The bar and barh functions no longer support the two output argument forms that they did during the MATLAB 5 Alpha/Beta program:

colordef Function Replaces Several Functions

The colordef function replaces the kdefault, wdefault, default4, and cleardef functions.

ExecutionQueue Property Removed

The ExecutionQueue property has been removed. The BusyAction property provides similar functionality.

See the axes function in the online MATLAB Graphics Reference for more information about each property.

HandleVisibility Property Replaces HiddenHandle Property

The HandleVisibility property replaces the HiddenHandle property.

HiddenVisibility is a property of all objects. It controls the scope of handle visibility within three different ranges. Property values can be:

-psdefcset Option for print Function Renamed -adobecset

The -psdefcset option to the print command has been renamed to
-adobecset. This option specifies that MATLAB should use Adobe's default character set encoding for PostScript, rather than ISO Latin-1 character set encoding.

Zbuffer Property Removed

The ZBuffer Figure property has been removed. Statements that instruct you to set the ZBuffer property should be replaced with statements that set the Figure Renderer property. For example, replace:

with

Application Program Interface Feature Changes

mexSearchMATLABPath Function Removed

The function mexSearchMATLABPath has been removed from the MEX interface. Replace mexSearchMATLABPath() with a call to the MATLAB which function using mexCallMATLAB().

mxCreatDoubleMatrixFromData Function Removed

The function mxCreateDoubleMatrixFromData has been removed from the MEX interface. Replace mxCreateDoubleMatrixFromData with a call to mxCreateDoubleMatrix, followed by copying the data into the array.

mxReshape and mxGetSize MEX-functions Renamed

The following MEX functions that were introduced in the MATLAB 5 Alpha/Beta program have been renamed:

UNIX Path Information

Path information now resides in pathdef.m instead of in matlabrc.m.



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