MATLAB New Features Guide

MATLAB 5 is a significant new release of MATLAB. We've been listening to your requests for new features - via telephone, e-mail, and at conferences - for the past several years, and have carefully used them to design this new version. We have combined these requests with exciting innovations to bring you MATLAB 5.

This booklet

Describes new features and enhancements in MATLAB 5.
Provides guidelines for upgrading from MATLAB 4 to MATLAB 5.

If you're familiar with MATLAB 4, you should read this guide first. Go on to Using MATLAB and Using MATLAB Graphics for more details on any new feature. If you encounter a new MATLAB function in this book and want to learn more, consult the online MATLAB Function Reference . (See "MATLAB Documentation" below.)

If you are a new MATLAB user, you should begin with Getting Started with MATLAB, which introduces you to MATLAB's capabilities as a programming and visualization language.

Help Desk

MATLAB 5 includes the MATLAB Help Desk, 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.

The Help Desk is optimized for the use of Netscape Navigator.

On all platforms you can access this facility via the helpdesk command. On the PC and Macintosh you can additionally access this facility via the Help menu or the ? icon on the Command Window toolbar.

Related MATLAB Commands

help displays MATLAB help text in the command window.
helpwin opens a window and displays MATLAB help text.

MATLAB Documentation

The MATLAB documentation set has been rewritten, expanded, and divided into several volumes for ease of use. The set includes on-line help, as well as hypertext-based and printed manuals. The online MATLAB Function Reference is a compendium of all MATLAB language, mathematical, and graphics functions. You can access this documentation from the MATLAB Help Desk. Choose "MATLAB Functions " to display the Function Reference.

The online documentation is augmented with a full set of printed documents, consisting of the following titles:

Getting Started with MATLAB, an introductory document describing the fundamentals of MATLAB.
Using MATLAB, which explains how to use MATLAB as both a programming language and a command-line application.
Using MATLAB Graphics, which describes how to use MATLAB's graphics and visualization tools.
MATLAB Application Program Interface Guide, which explains how to write C or Fortran programs that interact with MATLAB.
MATLAB 5 New Features Guide, which summarizes new features and provides information useful in making the transition from MATLAB 4 to MATLAB 5.
MATLAB Installation Guide, which describes how to install MATLAB on your platform.
Building GUIs with MATLAB, which describes Guide, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) design tool.
MATLAB Notebook User's Guide, which describes the use of Microsoft Word as an interface to MATLAB.
MATLAB Late-Breaking News, which contains information that became available after the preparation of the rest of the documentation set.

If one or more of the printed documents is unavailable to you, you can locate an online version of the same document via the Help Desk.

Additionally, command line ASCII help and an extensive library of demonstration programs provide instant online reference information about MATLAB commands and demonstrate MATLAB features.

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