MATLAB®

Starting and Quitting the MATLAB^® Program

Starting a MATLAB^® Session

On Microsoft^® Windows^® platforms, start the MATLAB^® program by double-clicking the MATLAB R2008a shortcut on your Windows desktop.

On Apple^® Macintosh^® platforms, start MATLAB by double-clicking the MATLAB 7.6 icon on your Macintosh desktop.

On The Open Group UNIX^® platforms, start MATLAB by typing matlab at the operating system prompt.

There are alternative ways to start MATLAB on Windows and Macintosh platforms, and you can customize MATLAB startup. For example, you can change the directory in which MATLAB starts or automatically execute MATLAB statements upon startup.

For More Information   See Startup and Shutdown in the Desktop Tools and Development Environment documentation.

The Desktop

When you start MATLAB, the desktop appears, containing tools (graphical user interfaces) for managing files, variables, and applications associated with MATLAB.

The following illustration shows the default desktop. You can customize the arrangement of tools and documents to suit your needs. For more information about the desktop tools, see Desktop Tools and Development Environment.

Back to Top

Quitting the MATLAB^® Program

To end your MATLAB session, select File > Exit MATLAB in the desktop, or type quit in the Command Window. You can run a script file named finish.m each time MATLAB quits that, for example, executes functions to save the workspace.

Confirm Quitting

MATLAB can display a confirmation dialog box before quitting. To set this option, select File > Preferences > General > Confirmation Dialogs, and select the check box for Confirm before exiting MATLAB.

For More Information   See Quitting the MATLAB® Program in the Desktop Tools and Development Environment documentation.

Back to Top

Documentation

Matrices and Arrays