MATLAB 7 Release 14 on Mac OS X Panther - A First Look
I downloaded and installed a pre-release version
of the Matlab
7 (Release 14) on Mac OS
X Panther 10.3.3 this week. Many new and exciting features are
planned for release 14. Among them are shortcuts for frequently used commands,
nesting functions, conditional breakpoints, a redesigned array editor for
editing and graphing variables, and a new plotting interface. There are many
more new features. The current version of Matlab is 6.5.1. In my opinion the
bump from 6.5.1 to 7.0 is clearly justified. Click here
for a more detailed list of what's new in Matlab
7.0,
In this post I'll highlight a few observations pertaining mostly to installing and using Matlab 7.0 on Mac OS X Panther. Read on for details.
In this post I'll highlight a few observations pertaining mostly to installing and using Matlab 7.0 on Mac OS X Panther. Read on for details.
The system requirements for Mac OS X are 10.3.2
or higher, G4 or G5, 345 MB disk space (for Matlab and help only), 256 MB RAM
(512 MB recommended), 64 MB swap space, 16-bit graphics or higher adaptor and
display (24 bit recommended), and X11. Matlab 7 makes use of X11 for graphics,
although unlike the previous version of Matlab, X11 is apparently not used in
the installation process.
Installing Matlab 7.0 from downloaded files involves downloading all required files to install and run Matlab and whatever toolkits you're licensed for. You can get these here, provided that you currently hold a Matlab license. On this page, select Release 14 and your platform (i.e., Mac OS X). Once you get to the page with the files to download, do the following:
1. Use the Installer Mac link to download the matlab_installer.tar file to the desktop.
2. Double-click the matlab_installer.tar file to unpack it with Stuffit Expander. This should produce a directory called matlab_installer Folder on your desktop.
3. Download all the other files into this folder matlab_installer Folder.
4. Double-click the InstallForMacOSX icon, located in the matlab_installer Folder, to launch the installer.
The installation process has been improved from previous versions of Matlab. Here are some screenshots:
You'll need to enter your license file as indicated:
select products for installation
You'll need to customize the license manager installation to install the license manager.
Yes, progress is very good...
Final steps in the installation process:
The installation the creates the directory /Applications/MATLAB7, which contains the Matlab application and related files, as well as /Library/StartupItems/MATLABLmgr directory, which starts the license manager.
Here's startup splash screen:
and the new Matlab 7.0 Desktop, which looks more Aquafied than that of Matlab 6.5.1:
A simple test of plotting commands:
Right-clicking on one or more highlighted arrays in the workspace region gives the contextual menu shown below.
Selecting 'More Plots...' opens the Plot Catalog as shown below.
This all looks very promising indeed. A word of caution is in order here, however. This pre-release is quite buggy. For example, I couldn't get the built-in editor/debugger to work, and there's something pretty funky happening with the figure window menu bar icons. The Mathworks is aware of these issues.
This pre-release is certainly not ready to replace your current version of Matlab. When it's ready, however, it's going to be an awesome product .
Installing Matlab 7.0 from downloaded files involves downloading all required files to install and run Matlab and whatever toolkits you're licensed for. You can get these here, provided that you currently hold a Matlab license. On this page, select Release 14 and your platform (i.e., Mac OS X). Once you get to the page with the files to download, do the following:
1. Use the Installer Mac link to download the matlab_installer.tar file to the desktop.
2. Double-click the matlab_installer.tar file to unpack it with Stuffit Expander. This should produce a directory called matlab_installer Folder on your desktop.
3. Download all the other files into this folder matlab_installer Folder.
4. Double-click the InstallForMacOSX icon, located in the matlab_installer Folder, to launch the installer.
The installation process has been improved from previous versions of Matlab. Here are some screenshots:
You'll need to enter your license file as indicated:
select products for installation
You'll need to customize the license manager installation to install the license manager.
Yes, progress is very good...
Final steps in the installation process:
The installation the creates the directory /Applications/MATLAB7, which contains the Matlab application and related files, as well as /Library/StartupItems/MATLABLmgr directory, which starts the license manager.
Here's startup splash screen:
and the new Matlab 7.0 Desktop, which looks more Aquafied than that of Matlab 6.5.1:
A simple test of plotting commands:
Right-clicking on one or more highlighted arrays in the workspace region gives the contextual menu shown below.
Selecting 'More Plots...' opens the Plot Catalog as shown below.
This all looks very promising indeed. A word of caution is in order here, however. This pre-release is quite buggy. For example, I couldn't get the built-in editor/debugger to work, and there's something pretty funky happening with the figure window menu bar icons. The Mathworks is aware of these issues.
This pre-release is certainly not ready to replace your current version of Matlab. When it's ready, however, it's going to be an awesome product .
Posted: Friday - March 26, 2004 at 07:20 AM
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