Digital Signal Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
Appendix E
Introduction to M
ATLAB
E.1 Introduction
M
ATLAB
, an abbreviation for the term “M
AT
rix
LAB
oratory,” is a powerful
computing environment for numerical calculations and multidimensional visu-
alization. It has become a
de facto
industry standard for developing engineering
applications for several reasons. First, M
ATLAB
reduces programming to data
processing abstraction. Instead of becoming bogged down with the intrinsic
details of programming, as required with other high-level languages, it allows
the user to focus on the theoretical concepts. Developing code in M
ATLAB
takes a fraction of the time necessary with other programming languages. Sec-
ondly, it provides a rich collection of library functions, referred to as toolboxes,
in virtually every field of engineering. The user can access the library functions
to build the required application. Thirdly, it supports multidimensional visual-
ization that allows experimental data to be rendered graphically in a compre-
hensible format.
In this appendix we provide a brief introduction to M
ATLAB
. Our intention
is to introduce the basic capabilities of M
ATLAB
so that the reader can start
working on the problems contained in this text. In the following discussion,
M
ATLAB
commands and results are shown in “
Courier
” font with the com-
mands preceded by the
>>
prompt. Results returned by M
ATLAB
in response
to the typed commands are also shown in the “
Courier
” font but are
not
preceded by the
>>
prompt.
Starting a M
ATLAB
session
M
ATLAB
is available on a variety of computing platforms. On an IBM com-
patible PC, a M
ATLAB
session can be initiated by selecting the M
ATLAB
program or double clicking on its icon. In an X-window system, M
ATLAB
is invoked by typing the complete path to the executable file of M
ATLAB
at
the shell prompt. Before using M
ATLAB
, it is recommended that you cre-
ate a subdirectory named
matlab
(all lower case letters for case-sensitive
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