Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Introduction to MATLAB
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1.1
General Information
Quick Overview
Thischapteris not intended to be a comprehensive manualofMATLAB
R
. Our sole
aim istoprovidesufficient information to give youagood start. If youarefamiliar
with another computer language, andwe assumethat youare, it is not difficult to pick
up the rest as yougo.
MATLAB is a high-level computer languagefor scientificcomputing and datavi-
sualization built around an interactive programming environment. It is becoming the
premiere platform for scientificcomputing ateducational institutions and research
establishments. The great advantageofan interactivesystemisthat programscan be
tested and debugged quickly, allowing the user to concentrate moreon the principles
behind the program and less onprogramming itself.Since there is no need to com-
pile, link and execute after each correction,MATLAB programscan be developedin
much shorter timethan equivalent FORTRANorCprograms. On the negativeside,
MATLAB does not produce stand-alone applications—the programscan be run only
on computersthathaveMATLAB installed.
MATLAB has other advantages over mainstream languages thatcontribute to
rapid program development:
MATLAB contains a large number of functionsthat access proven numericalli-
braries, such as LINPACK andEISPACK. Thismeansthatmany commontasks (e.g.,
solution of simultaneousequations) can be accomplishedwith a single function
call.
There isextensive graphics supportthat allows the results of computationstobe
plottedwith a few statements.
All numericalobjects aretreatedas double-precisionarrays. Thus there is no need
to declare data types and carry outtypeconversions.
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