Sunday, December 5, 2010

Adventures with MatLab

On a recent trip to the Book Thing, I found a copy of "Engineering Problem Solving with MatLab", a dual introduction to engineering problems and the MatLab software. For me, the engineering is a stroll down memory lane; MatLab is the new experience.

I installed Octave, the GNU equivalent of MatLab. Octave performed some basic functions identically to MatLab, which got me excited. I have yet to try the advanced features.

The book contains a floppy disk with programs and data (I assume) for its exercises. The Linux systems (//desdemona and //delilah) refuse to mount the disk. Perhaps it is no longer readable -- the book was published in 1993. I may have to get the data from another source.

My plan is to perform the exercises in the book. The idea excites me -- it's a fun, geeky way to learn a new language!

Edit: Apparently the exercises use very little in the way of data from the floppy disk. I had some fun this evening, entering data and displaying graphs. Whee!


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