I have some code that plots triangles in MATLAB.
I need to be able to somehow execute this code from my C program which generates these points.
Is that possible? How can it be done?
Just a thought:
Can I somehow embed MATLAB code in C, so that it can compile on a C compiler?
The Mathworks site has full details; a demo video of calling the Matlab engine from C, and also the Matlab to C Compiler.
As mentioned previously by answerers, you can call a live copy of MATLAB from C via the MATLAB Engine interface.
If the end-product needs to be used where there is no live copy of MATLAB, you can deploy the application using MATLAB Compiler. However, MATLAB Compiler does not, as another answer has suggested, convert MATLAB programs into C code (and hasn't done for a few versions now). Instead, it archives and encrypts your MATLAB program, and packages it into an executable or shared library that executes against the MATLAB Compiler Runtime (shareable royalty-free). The executable or shared library can then be called from C.
Alternatively you could go the other way around, and call your C code from MATLAB, using either loadlibrary or MATLAB's MEX interface.
Update: As of release R2011a, you can also use MATLAB Coder to generate C code directly from a subset of the MATLAB language.
Look at this presentation about integrating MATLAB Algorithms in C or C++ Applications http://www.mathworks.com/videos/integrating-matlab-algorithms-in-c-or-c-applications-86431.html
I need to run some mathematica commands inside matlab codes. Looking around I found there used to be two alternatives for this:
-SMATLink (http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/20573-smatlink-let-matlab-dance-with-mathematica)
-Mathemtica Symbolic Toolbox for MatLab (http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/6044-mathematica-symbolic-toolbox-for-matlab-version-2-0)
Both are old however and won't run on newer versions of MatLab. Does anybody know an alternative? MatLink only seems to interact Mathematica with MatLab by running commands in Mathematica, so it does suit not my needs...
Thanks in advance.
What's the difference between the two?
As far as I understand it, MATLAB Compiler wraps the MATLAB code into a .exe file so that it can be used without installing MATLAB, and only requires the MCR. On top of it MATLAB Builder NE can also be used to produce .Net assemblies to be used with .Net framework instead of the .exe file, but they still require MCR.
Now I don't understand what MATLAB Coder used for? It generates C/C++ code. But is the MATLAB code really converted into C/C++, or is it merely packaged like in the case of MATLAB Compiler? Does it also need the MCR to run?
I understand that this is not exactly a programming question. But I have searched the internet and still haven't found a clear answer. These are very expensive products so I would like to know what I am getting into.
MATLAB Compiler encrypts and archives your MATLAB code (which remains as MATLAB .m code), and packages it in a thin executable (either .exe or .dll) wrapper. This is delivered to the end user along with the MATLAB Compiler Runtime (MCR). If you wish, the MCR can be packaged within the executable as well.
The MCR is freely redistributable, and you can think of it as essentially a copy of MATLAB without a front-end desktop.
When the user runs the executable, it dearchives and decrypts the MATLAB code, and runs it against the MCR instead of MATLAB. Applications delivered via this method should therefore run exactly the same as they do within MATLAB (including the same speed).
MATLAB Coder converts a subset of the MATLAB language into C code. This can then be used in many different ways, including being brought back into MATLAB as a mex file, compiled with a C compiler to be called from another application, or delivered to an embedded device. Since it is C code rather than MATLAB code, it will often (though not always) run much faster than the original MATLAB code. The C code does not require the MCR. The supported subset of the MATLAB language is very extensive, but there are a few notable restrictions that you would want to look into before committing to this workflow. The code produced is C code, although it can produce a C++ wrapper if you have a need to use a C++ compiler rather than a C compiler.
MATLAB Compiler is intended for the use case that you want to simply and (fairly) straightforwardly share a MATLAB application that you've written with someone who does not have a copy of MATLAB. Since the deployed .m code is encrypted, it can also be used to share MATLAB code while protecting intellectual property.
MATLAB Coder has other use cases, such as wanting to speed up MATLAB code by converting to a mex file, or needing to produce C code for another application or an embedded device.
If you have more detailed questions, I would really recommend that you just call up MathWorks and ask them.
Edit: The information above is correct for versions of MATLAB R2014b and below. As of MATLAB R2015a, functionality from MATLAB Compiler has been remixed with functionality from the MATLAB Builder products, and there is also a new product MATLAB Compiler SDK.
As of R2015a, MATLAB Compiler works in the same way as described above (i.e. encrypt, archive and package, but not producing C), but will now package as .exe, and as an Excel add-in (.xla). Prior to R2015a, this functionality used to be present in the product MATLAB Builder EX for Excel.
As of R2015a, MATLAB Compiler no longer produces .dll components. This functionality has been moved to the new product MATLAB Compiler SDK, which also includes functionality to produce .NET assemblies and Java classes. Prior to R2015a, this functionality used to be present in the products MATLAB Builder NE for .NET and MATLAB Builder JA for Java.
In other words:
In R2014b and below, we had:
MATLAB Compiler: produce .exe and .dll components
MATLAB Builder NE for .NET: produce .NET assemblies
MATLAB Builder JA for Java: produce Java classes
MATLAB Builder EX for Microsoft Excel: produce Excel add-ins.
In R2015a, we have:
MATLAB Compiler: produce .exe and Excel add-ins
MATLAB Compiler SDK: produce .dll, .NET assemblies and Java classes.
The scope and use-cases of MATLAB Coder have not changed across these releases (although there are new features).
Edit: As of R2015b, MATLAB Compiler SDK also produces Python packages.
Additional information on distinguishing MATLAB Coder and MATLAB Compiler for C/C++ can be found here.
Comparison table of different MATLAB Products for code generation.
MATLAB Compiler SDK provides shared libraries that run against a MATLAB Runtime (MCR). It supports most of the features in MATLAB, including graphics, and protects your intellectual property by encrypting your MATLAB code.
MATLAB Coder, on the other hand, provides readable and portable source code. It supports a subset of the MATLAB Language focused on algorithms performing numerical computations.
This MATLAB Answers goes into more details comparing these two approaches:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/223937-should-i-use-matlab-compiler-sdk-or-matlab-coder-to-integrate-my-matlab-applications-with-c-c
For example, MATLAB Compiler SDK can be deployed only to platforms that support MATLAB (Windows, Mac, Linux) whereas MATLAB Coder generates C code that can run on any platform that supports C code.
Also, the packaged code from MATLAB Compiler SDK is encrypted to protect IP, whereas the generated C code from MATLAB Coder can be protected in the same way hand written C code is protected.
It's also worth noting that generated C code from MATLAB Coder has the potential of faster execution while the packaged code from MATLAB Compiler SDK will run as fast as it does in MATLAB.
I'm not an expert, but the Coder is described as generating standalone C/C++ code, making no mention of the MCR. I notice however that it says that it only supports a "subset" of the Matlab language, which you can read more about here. The Compiler appears to just package up your Matlab code as you suggested, so probably supports most features.
MATLAB coder generates C/C++ code, which could also depend on 3rd party libraries such as intel's TBB/IPP. If you want truly vanilla C/C++ code, you need MATLAB's embedded coder.
On the other hand, MATLAB compiler produces encrypted executables/libraries/etc which runs against MCR (Matlab runtime library). This requires the target computer to pre-install MCR (at no cost). Since MCR is over 1 GB in size, it's not very retargetable.
MATLAB coder is also more expensive than MATLAB compiler.
Is it possible to use a MATLAB code on Scilab? Is that what is meant when saying that Scilab is a "clone" from MATLAB?
There is a tool to automatically convert Matlab source to Scilab source, it's called M2SCI. A script parses the Matlab source code and replaces Matlab-specific functions by Scilab ones. See the documentation of the mfile2sci function.
Yes you can use MATLAB code on scilab. See these links for more information:
http://help.scilab.org/docs/5.4.0/fr_FR/section_36184e52ee88ad558380be4e92d3de21.html
http://help.scilab.org/docs/5.4.0/en_US/index.html
I would not bet on it. But if your code is simple enough chances are good.
Problems are:
There is encrypted p-code in Matlab that Scilab will not be able to open.
Matlab usually comes with a number of toolboxes that might not be available to you (i think especially Simulink)
last but not least (i don't know about scilab) there usually are minute differences in how functions are implemented.
There are a number of projects out there trying to replicate/replace MATLAB:
Julia language: which has a relatively similar syntax to MATLAB and offers great performance, but still lacks a lot of toolboxes/libraries, as well as not having a GUI like MATLAB. I think this has the brightest future among all MATLAB alternatives.
Python language and its libraries NumPy and matplotlib: which is the most used alternative. I think at this moment the community is a couple of orders of magnitude even bigger than MATLAB. Python is the de facto standard in machine learning and data science at the moment. But still, the syntax and memory concept is a bit far from what people are used to in the MATLAB ecosystem. There are also no equivalent to SIMULINK, although Spyder and Jupyter projects have come a long way in terms of the development environment.
Octave: is basically a clone of MATLAB to a point they consider any incompatibility as a bug. If you have a long MATLAB code that you don't want to touch, this is the safest bet. But again no alternative for SIMULINK.
SciLab and it's fork ScicoLab are the best alternatives in terms of GUI, having a SIMULINK replica xcos / scicos and a graphical user interface development features. However the community is not as big as Octave and the syntax is not completely compatible. Sadly the Scilab development team has gone through a devastating family crisis leading to the software falling behind.
Honorary mention of Modelica language implementations OpenModelica and jModelica for being a superior alternative to SIMULINK-SimScape. You should know that you can load Modelica scrips also in xcos and scicos. If you want to kno wmore about JModelica you may see this post.
you may check the MATLAB's Alternativeto page to see more Free and Open source alternatives.
I have written a set of Matlab functions and I want to distribute it to few people for testing. But I do not want to reveal the source to them. All these people have matalb installed on their systems. So I don't want to make standalone executable from my functions. Ideally I want something like complied library files which the users can put in the matlab path & call the functions from their matlab prompt / matlab functions. Is it even possible ?
Edit: I have matlab compiler toolbox. But the users won't be having access to matlab compiler toolbox on their matlab.
The standard way is using pcode. Look in the docs and remember to keep a copy of the source code elsewhere!