OVERVIEW

Scilab is similar to Matlab, it is an interactive program operating upon matrices, with graphic capabilities, and it is extensible by user-written functions. The goal of this tutorial is to provide a hands-on introduction to Scilab. It is open source software, freely available to download, installs flawlessly, and you can start using it just a few minutes after downloading.

The following is the link to the Scilab homepage: http://scilabsoft.inria.fr/.

The data structures in Scilab include lists, polynomials, rational functions, linear systems, and matrices similar to Matlab, but the syntax is different.

Once you execute Scilab, an interactive shell is open. You can enter the instructions and see the response immediately. To get help on any function, just enter help and the function name. The accompanying CD-ROM directory Scilab contains scripts with Scilab instructions for creating figures and example solutions.

The following is a short tutorial on Scilab.

SCILAB BASICS

First, type the following:

  help plot

To see how the figures in Chapter 7, "Digital Filters," are created, change to that directory on the CD-ROM.

  chdir d:/scilab  exec script7.sci

Complex number addition

  complex=3+2*%i + 4+5*%icomplex =7. + 7.i

Create a sin function of 100 points and plot it,

  plot(sin(2*%pi*[0:.01:1]))

A 20 Hz sine wave, total samples of 100 should have a period of 20/100 = 0.2

  k=1:100; sinf = sin (2 * %pi * 0.2 * k); plot(sinf);

A composite signal of modulated sinusoid at 10 Hz, sampled at .02 sec apart (50Hz sampling), 5...