Matthias K. Gobbert

Installation Check for Matlab

Matlab Version 7.0 (R14) - Summer 2005

This page can be reached via my homepage at http://www.math.umbc.edu/~gobbert.

Purpose of this Document

This page is written to help system administrations -- who are not assumed to be familiar with mathematics or the software package Matlab -- check, whether their installation of Matlab was successful. This page may also prove useful for users to check that their Matlab works, e.g., students installing the Matlab Student Version at home. For more details on some points, also see the Matlab area of my homepage itself.

This document is specifically written for the Matlab version listed above under the title. I am a Linux user, but the checks should be correct for all platforms supported by Matlab, but at least those platforms that support the Java Virtual Machine (like Windows and Linux). Please, do let me know if you find erros in this page.

Basic Functionality

Test whether Matlab starts at all: Start Matlab in the way usual for your platform, e.g., under Unix/Linux, simply say matlab at the prompt or under Windows use the Start->Programs menu.

What should happen: During the startup, Matlab's so-called splash screen should briefly appear on the screen; it contains the major version number. Assuming that the Java Virtual Machine is functioning on your platform, Matlab's Desktop should start up. The right half of the Desktop is the so-called command window. To make the following statements correct under any operating system, I will refer to commands entered in this command window from now on, even though there may be other options to accomplish the same task.

Upon startup, the command window should display lines such as


                              < M A T L A B >
                  Copyright 1984-2005 The MathWorks, Inc.
                   Version 7.0.4.352 (R14) Service Pack 2
                              January 29, 2005


  To get started, select MATLAB Help or Demos from the Help menu.

>>

Notice the exact version and release numbers, which are current for my Linux installation in the Math Department in June 2005. Make sure the correct version has started for your environment. The >> is the Matlab prompt. Enter ver at the Matlab prompt. This should display all installed and licensed products of Matlab and its toolboxes including their version numbers. If the correct toolboxes are listed, this tells you that your license file and license server are functioning properly. (If the ver results in more than one screen full of lines, can use more on to switch on a pager.)

Check the Documentation

Again assuming that your platform supports the Java Virtual Machine, start Matlab's HelpBrowser by saying helpbrowser at the Matlab prompt >> (or by selecing from the pull-down menues Help->MATLAB Help).

A large new window should open up. If the documentation cannot be found at all, an error message will appear now. You may want to click on some entries in the table-of-contents on the left side to see if they come up.

For completeness, test that a particular page in the HelpBrowser can be found by saying doc startup at the Matlab prompt >>. This should result in the HelpBrowser displaying the documentation of the startup command.

Test Basic Plotting

This test really tests, whether Matlab is able to open another window at all and more specifically a graphics window displaying a plot. In the command window, enter at the Matlab prompt

  plot ([0 1], [0 1]);

A graphics window should open displaying a straight line from point (0, 0) to point (1, 1).

Test the Editor

This test ensures on the one hand that Matlab's editor can be brought up in its new window, but it also tests whether a user would be able to save a newly created file to disk; see possibly Unresolved Issues below.

Say edit hello.m at the Matlab prompt >>. Possibly, a dialog box should come up that wants you to confirm that you are creating a new file. After clicking okay, the editor should come up in a new window with the file name hello.m already selected; notice the extension .m. Enter

  disp ('Hello, world!');

into the file. Save the file; if this causes an error, see below.

In the command window, check that Matlab can find the script file hello.m by saying what at the Matlab prompt. Then try executing the script by simply saying hello at the Matlab prompt. This should result in simply displaying the text "Hello, world!" in the next line.

Unresolved Issues

TMP: above editor check should reveal directory issue As far as I am aware right now -- Summer 2005 --, Matlab starts up in the Current Directory C:\MATLAB7\work (or similar) under Windows. Since this is a (local) system directory, a user cannot write to it, and the above test involving the Matlab editor should give an error message. The Matlab area of my homepage contains suggestions how to change directory at the start of every session.

This is clearly not ideal and we should look for a better way such that Matlab starts up in a user-writeable directory. Moreover, notice the documentation obtained by doc startup; the way Matlab starts up at present does not allow for this functionality to work.

I think, the deeper reason for the problem is that the user-owned directory S:\matlab (which should point to the same place within AFS as $HOME/matlab under Unix/Linux) is not automatically included in Matlab's search path, because the Windows related commands in userpath.m fail; see this file by saying type userpath and its use in setting up the search path in type pathdef. These are both sysadmin-editable files and meant to be adjusted for a local installation. Notice that changing the path using the File->SetPath facility does not work across sessions, because the pathdef.m file created will not be found upon the next startup.

Let me know if I do not get something right here. But these are my impressions at this point.