| MATLAB Functions | Help Desk |
What Is MATLAB?
MATLAB® is a technical computing environment for high-performance numeric computation and visualization. MATLAB integrates numerical analysis, matrix computation, signal processing, and graphics in an easy-to-use environment where problems and solutions are expressed just as they are written mathematically - without traditional programming. The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory. MATLAB was originally written to provide easy access to matrix software developed by the LINPACK and EISPACK projects, which together represent the state of the art in software for matrix computation. MATLAB is an interactive system whose basic data element is an array that does not require dimensioning. This allows you to solve many numerical problems in a fraction of the time it would take to write a program in a language such as Fortran, Basic, or C. MATLAB has evolved over a period of years with input from many users. In university environments, it has become the standard instructional tool for introductory courses in applied linear algebra, as well as advanced courses in other areas. In industrial settings, MATLAB is used for research and to solve practical engineering and mathematical problems. Typical uses include general purpose numeric computation, algorithm prototyping, and special purpose problem solving with matrix formulations that arise in disciplines such as automatic control theory, statistics, and digital signal processing (time-series analysis). MATLAB also features a family of application-specific solutions that we call toolboxes. Very important to most users of MATLAB, toolboxes are comprehensive collections of MATLAB functions (M-files) that extend the MATLAB environment in order to solve particular classes of problems. Areas in which toolboxes are available include signal processing, control systems design, dynamic systems simulation, systems identification, neural networks, and others. Probably the most important feature of MATLAB, and one that we took care to perfect, is its easy extensibility. This allows you to become a contributing author too, creating your own applications. In the years that MATLAB has been available, we have enjoyed watching many scientists, mathematicians, and engineers develop new and interesting applications, all without writing a single line of Fortran or other low-level code. The original MATLAB was written in Fortran by Cleve Moler, in an evolutionary process over several years. The underlying matrix algorithms are from the many people who worked on the LINPACK and EISPACK projects. The current MATLAB program was written in C by The MathWorks. The first release was written by Steve Bangert, who wrote the parser/interpreter, Steve Kleiman, who implemented the graphics, and John Little and Cleve Moler, who wrote the analytical routines, the user's guide, and most of the M-files. Since the first release, many other people have joined the MATLAB development team and have made substantial contributions.MATLAB Documentation
MATLAB comes with an extensive set of both online and printed documentation. The online MATLAB Function Reference is a compendium of all MATLAB language and graphics commands plus mathematical functions. You can access this documentation from the MATLAB Help Desk. Users on all platforms can access this facility via thedoc command.Windows and Macintosh users can additionally access this facility via the Help menu or the ? icon on the Command Window toolbar. From the Help Desk main menu, 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: