% 10/4/05 Introduction to Matlab

% You can download Matlab at
% http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/software/matlab/www/home.html

% The Mathworks site has some useful introductory pages:

% http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/learn_matlab/learn_matlab.html

% create a vector
x = 1:10

% extract the 7th element
x(7)

% create a matrix
x =  [0, 1, 2; 10, 11, 12; 20, 21, 22];

% extract the element in position (2,3)
x(1,2)

% Scripts
%--------
% You can put a collection of commands into a file with the .m extension.
% Typing the filename is equivalent to typing all of the commands at the
% command line. This file is a script.

% Functions 
%-----------
% You can also create functions. Put the next two lines in a
% file called mysquare.m :

% function y = mysquare(x)
%  y = x^2;

% Now we can call the function
mysquare(3);

% Try 
help function % to learn more about functions

% Getting help
% --------------
% figure out the name of the standard deviation function
lookfor deviation

% read the help file about the standard deviation function
help std

% Debugging
%----------
% Placing "keyboard" somewhere in a script or a function stops execution at
% that point. Use dbstep to advance and dbcont to continue execution.

dbstop if error % is very useful -- it will stop your program when an error
	        % happens and let you track down the problem by examining the 
		% variables in memory

% Other useful commands
%----------------------- 

% Try exploring:
%   size, find, whos, sum, mean, max, min, repmat

% Making graphs
%--------------
% Try exploring: plot, bar, print