Characteristics of MATLAB

• Programming language based (principally) on matrices.
  • Slow (compared with fortran or C) because it is an interpreted language, i.e. not pre-compiled. Avoid for loops; instead use vector form (see section on vector technique below) whenever possible.
  • Automatic memory management, i.e., you don't have to declare arrays in advance.
  • Intuitive, easy to use.
  • Compact (array handling is fortran90-like).
  • Shorter program development time than traditional programming languages such as Fortran and C.
  • Can be converted into C code via MATLAB compiler for better efficiency.
• Many application-specific toolboxes available.
• Coupled with Maple for symbolic computations.
• On shared-memory parallel computers such as the SGI Origin2000, certain operations processed in parallel autonomously -- when computation load warrants.