What is MATLAB?
MATLAB was originally developed to be a “matrix laboratory,” written to provide easy access to matrix software developed by the LINPACK and EISPACK projects. Since then, the software has evolved into an interactive system and programming language for general scientific and technical computation and visualization. The basic MATLAB data element is a matrix. MATLAB commands are expressed n a form very similar to that used in mathematics and engineering. For instance, b = A x, where A, b, and x are matrices, is written b = A * x . To solve for x in terms of A and b, write x = A\b . There is no need to program matrix operations explicitly like multiplication or inversion. Solving problems in MATLAB is, therefore, generally much quicker than programming in a high-level language such as C or FORTRAN. There are hundreds of built-in functions that come with the basic MATLAB and there are optional “toolboxes” of functions for specific purposes such as Controls, Signal Processing, and Optimizatio
From the Matlab web page: “MATLAB is a high-level technical computing language and interactive environment for algorithm development, data visualization, data analysis, and numeric computation. […] You can use MATLAB in a wide range of applications, including signal and image processing, communications, control design, test and measurement, financial modeling and analysis, and computational biology. Add-on toolboxes (collections of special-purpose MATLAB functions, available separately) extend the MATLAB environment to solve particular classes of problems in these application areas.” Here is a list of features, also from the webpage: • High-level language for technical computing • Development environment for managing code, files, and data • Interactive tools for iterative exploration, design, and problem solving • Mathematical functions for linear algebra, statistics, Fourier analysis, filtering, optimization, and numerical integration • 2-D and 3-D graphics functions for visualizing
MATLAB is a commercial software package written by The MathWorks, Inc. Quoting from their web page: “Numeric computation, technical graphics and visualization, and an intuitive programming language for applications in engineering and science.” MATLAB is a complete environment for high-level programming, as well as interactive data analysis. MATLAB excels at numerical computations, especially when dealing with vectors or matrices of data. Symbolic math is available through an add-on toolbox that uses a Maple kernel. There are many add-on toolboxes that extend MATLAB to specific areas of functionality, such as statistics, finance, signal processing, image processing, bioinformatics, etc. You can find a list of toolboxes (http://www.mathworks.com/products/product_listing/index.html) produced by The MathWorks. There is also a list (http://www.mathworks.com/products/connections/) of some add-on products produced and sold by other companies, and some users place their own functions or collec
