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Doug Hull
Doug Hull
Last activity on 17 Feb 2015

I think a lot about how to more effectively teach MATLAB, internally to new hires, but also through my blog.
How did you learn MATLAB, what knowledge of programming did you have coming into learning MATLAB? When did you learn it is important also as the resources available have expanded radically in the last 15 years.
Answers from new users who are just beginning down this path are of particular interest, as those are who we can help the most.
Now, I am still a novice when it comes to programming. I believe MATLAB is definitely a great programming tool, one that I can play with, particularly, when I have free time.
I would love to hear from all answerers, what are the ways that can make one proficient in this field?
Don't be shy, what was your matlab learning curve, how many years or months, what were the difficulties to begin with.
I think that the answers would be most valuable for new users, maybe you can also tell us the tricks that allowed you to master some parts or all matlab.
Now it's your turn...
Jan
Jan
Last activity on 20 Sep 2024

Which Matlab related forums and newsgroups do you use beside MATLAB Answers? Which languages do they use? Which advantages and unique features do they have?
Do you think that these forums complement or compete against MathWorks and its communication platform?
Actually all answers are accepted.
O.k., admit it. Who has done this (or something that resulted in the same loss of info) before?
>> laster
??? Undefined function or variable 'laster'.
>> lasterr
ans =
Undefined function or variable 'laster'.
D'Oh! I need a ERRORBEFORELASTERR function.
What's one of your dumb MATLAB mistakes?
Are there parts of MATLAB that could disappear as far as you were concerned, things you don't need or which were "bad ideas" or which cause more trouble than they are worth in your experience?
One suggestion per answer please, so we can see how other people feel about the same matters.
I use MATLAB most days (when I'm at work!). It makes my life easier, for many reasons, which is why I like it.
What are the reasons you like it (assuming you do), and why?
I love MATLAB. It is so quick and easy to write software to do what you want. It has excellent debugging and profiling tools. It is cross platform, making code easy to share (assuming the other people have forked out for the not-so-cheap license). It has interfaces to other software.
However, there are some things about it that irk me. I'd like to hear from other people what things annoy them about MATLAB.
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Because this thread has become so large it is slow to load and navigate. Please post new answers in the second thread.
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amit jain
amit jain
Last activity on 2 Jun 2023

What is the best way to learn MATLAB at home without a tutor?
As asked by Vieniava in "How to make a list of user's reputation?", some of us came up with interesting ideas on how to fill an updated list with the reputation scores of the contributors to Answers.
I took the initiative to compile a public list of users with meta info:
  • position (desc ordering by reputation)
  • id
  • nickname (truncated to fit the page)
  • reputation
  • # of comments
  • # of questions asked
  • % accept rate
  • # of posts answered
  • # of accepted answers
The code used to compile the list is available at the bottom.
EDIT
TMW team implemented a page with the metascores: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/contributors
Please refer to it and congrats to the team!
Use this function to retrieve info from the link above:
function [metainfo, elapsedTime] = metainfo(type,order)
% METAINFO - Retrieve metainfo on contributors to www.matworks.com/.../answers
%
% METAINFO Retrieve data sorted by reputation in descending order
%
% METAINFO(TYPE,ORDER) Specify TYPE and sorting ORDER as
% type : 'reputation'
% 'questions'
% 'answered'
% 'accepted'
%
% order: 'asc'
% 'desc'
%
% Examples:
%
% % Standard call (rep, disc)
% info = metainfo;
%
% % Sort by question answered in descending order
% info = metainfo('an','d');
%
% See also: URLREAD, REGEXP
% Author: Oleg Komarov (oleg.komarov@hotmail.it)
% Tested on R14SP3 (7.1) and on R2009b. In-between compatibility is assumed.
% 28 feb 2011 - Created
tic
% Check # inputs
error(nargchk(0,2,nargin))
% Retrieve inputs
if nargin == 0
type = 'reputation';
order = 'desc';
end
if ~exist(type,'var')
sortTypes = {'reputation','questions','answered','accepted'};
type = sortTypes{strncmp(type,sortTypes,numel(type))};
order = 'desc';
end
if ~exist(order,'var')
orderTypes = {'asc','desc'};
type = orderTypes{strncmp(order,orderTypes,numel(order))};
end
% Build url string
url = ['http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/contributors?'...
'dir=' order '&sort=' type '&page='];
% First read
[page, ok] = urlread([url '1']);
% Catch number of pages to read
if ok
totcon = regexp(page,'>1 - 50 of (\d+)','tokens');
totcon = dataread('string',totcon{1}{1},'%d');
nPages = ceil(totcon/50);
else
error('Cannot read ".../contributors?page=1"')
end
% Loop over contributors pages
metainfo = cell(totcon,7);
metainfo(1:end,1) = num2cell(1:size(metainfo,1));
for p = 1:nPages
if ok
endpos = 50*p;
% Id, Rep
expr = '><a href="\/matlabcentral\/answers\/contributors\/(\d+)';
data = regexp(page, expr,'tokens');
if 50*p > totcon; endpos = 50*(p-1)+numel(data); end
metainfo(1+(p-1)*50:endpos,2) = [data{:}];
% Nickname
expr = ['"Reputation: (\d+)">([\w\ ' reshape([repmat(92,1,137);33:59,61:64,91:97,123:126,161:255],1,[]) ']+)</a></h2>'];
data = regexp(page, expr,'tokens');
metainfo(1+(p-1)*50:endpos,[4,3]) = cat(1,data{:});
% Qcount, Ans, Acc
data = regexp(page, '<span >(\d+)</span>[A-z<>"-\s\/]+','tokens');
metainfo(1+(p-1)*50:endpos,5:7) = reshape(cat(1,data{:}),3,[]).';
else
error('Metainfo import stopped. \nCannot read ".../contributors?page=%d"',p)
end
[page, ok] = urlread([url sprintf('%d',p+1)]);
end
% Convert to doubles
metainfo(:,[2,4:7]) = cellfun(@str2double,metainfo(:,[2,4:7]),'un',false);
elapsedTime = toc;
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