TABLE OF CONTENTS MATLAB is a numerical computation and simulation tool that was developed into a commercial tool with a user friendly interface from the numerical function libraries LINPACK and EISPACK, which were originally written in the FORTRAN programming language.
As opposed to the well-known computer algebra programs, such as MAPLE or MATHEMATICA, which are capable of performing symbolic operations and, therefore, calculating with mathematical equations as a person would normally do with paper and pencil, in principle MATLAB does purely numerical calculations. Nevertheless, computer algebra functionality can be achieved within the MATLAB environment using the so-called "symbolics" toolbox. This capability is a permanent component of MATLAB 7 and is also provided in the student version of MATLAB 7. It involves an adaptation of MAPLE to the MATLAB language. We shall examine this functionality in Section 1.8.
Computer algebra programs require complex data structures that involve complicated syntax for the ordinary user and complex programs for the programmer. MATLAB, on the other hand, essentially only involves a single data structure, upon which all its operations are based. This is the numerical field, or, in other words, the matrix. This is reflected in the name: MATLAB is an abbreviation for MATrix LABoratory.
As MATLAB developed, this principle gradually led to a universal programming language. In MATLAB 7 far more complex data structures can be defined, such as the data structure Structure, which is similar to the data structure Struct of the...
