About the MATLAB Reference Pages

The Why

These Web pages originated as class notes and supplementary handouts for courses I teach on numerical methods and numerical modeling of fluid dynamics (CFD). The notes evolved, and eventually students who had not taken any of my classes began asking for help with MATLAB. It was clear that people beginning to use MATLAB needed a concise introduction that was more structured and elementary than the MATLAB User's Guide.

Then I started to learn perl. Perl has nothing (directly, at least) to do with MATLAB or numerical methods. Rather, it was the way I went about learning perl. I found a couple of indispensible hypertext references to the language. First I stumbled onto Robert Seymour's list of perl references (now defunct) on the PSU ECE web site. Seymour included a link to something called the The HyperText Perl Manual (also defunct). Of course (in 2006) on-line manuals are now ubiquitous. At the time (ca. 1993), however, it was an eye-opener.

And then the PSU Office of Academic Affairs organized a ``Summer Technology Institute'' to encourage faculty to use the latest technologies in their class rooms. I had already published web pages and used most of the tools discussed at the Institute. There was this big incentive, however. Faculty who attended the STI and who completed a project using these tools, would be given a laptop to help them with their teaching. This, I thought, was another good thing. If I could only get accepted into the STI program, I would get a laptop to take with me on airplanes so I could play color solitaire while the guy next to me was stuck reading a wrinkled Conde Nast publication. Seriously, I really need a laptop so that I can run MATLAB demos and do other really cool things in the classroom.

So these web pages were born at the intersection of my desire to support students who are learning MATLAB, my discovery of fine examples of hypertext reference material, and my desire to get yet another computer.

The How

These pages were created on the PowerMacs in my home and my office. The HTML was written with BBEdit Lite from BareBones Software, and the BBEdit HTML Tools v1.3 by Lindsay Davies. The icons and logos were created with Canvas, then converted to GIFs with either GraphicConverter by Thorsten Lemke or clip2gif by Yves Piguet. Some GIFs (those with non-square outlines) had their backgrounds set to transparent with Transparency (now obsolete) by Aaron Giles. And of course, the code and figures were created with MATLAB.

Note that of the tools I used only Canvas costs a lot of money. BBedit Lite, the BBEdit HTML Tools, clip2gif, and Transparency are freeware, and GraphicConverter is shareware. (Yes, I'm registered.) I'm sure that soon there will be an abundance of sophisticated HTML editing tools. In the meantime I'm sticking with BBedit.

In addition to the usual hypertext references on HTML I also got a lot of good help from, ``HTML for Fun and Profit'', Mary E.S. Morris, 1995, SunSoft/Prentice Hall.

I learned MATLAB by reading the manuals, Kermit Sigmon's exellent ``MATLAB Primer'', and by lurking in comp.soft-sys.matlab. I also benefited from years of C and Fortran programming. Still, I do not really consider myself a MATLAB expert. This hypertext reference is just what I believe to be true about MATLAB. Surely there are errors and I would be happy to make corrections if you would point them out.

And About That Copyright

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with this reference. Someday, though not yet, it may end up in the public domain. On the other hand I could be interested if someone wanted to pay me to publish this in another form. For now I'm keeping my options open, and I'm preventing you from copying this material and using it for profit.

You are free to copy and use any of the script, function and data files connected via links to these pages. You cannot, however, copy the hypertext pages without my permission. If you work for a nonprofit entity I will happily set up a procedure whereby, for free, you can mirror these pages at your site. Please if you are interested. If your organization is a ``for profit'' entity I would ask that you make a small donation to the Portland State University Foundation in return for a copy of this material.

This material is provided ``as is'', with no guarantees, warrantees, or promises that it will serve any useful purpose whatsoever. There. Is America great, or what?

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