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Desktop Tools and Development Environment, MATLAB Version 7.0.1 (R14SP1)

New features and changes are organized by these topics:

Startup and Shutdown

Construction of Classpath for Java Software Now Uses librarypath

When the MATLAB software starts, it now uses librarypath.txt as well as classpath.txt to construct the classpath for Sun Microsystems Java software.

Compatibility Considerations.   If you call Java software from MATLAB, refer to Locating Native Method Libraries in the MATLAB External Interfaces documentation for details. This change was part of MATLAB 7.0.

Desktop

System Web Browser Used for Large Files

The MATLAB Web browser displays files up to 1.5 MB. When the Web browser tries to open a file greater than 1.5 MB, MATLAB instead automatically displays the file in the system default browser.

Keyboard Access Added for More Desktop Tools

Additional desktop tools provide keyboard access to toolbar buttons and fields via mnemonics. For example, Alt+K moves the cursor to the Stack field in the Editor/Debugger toolbar. In the Profiler, the R in the Run this code toolbar field is underlined, indicating that Alt+R moves the cursor to this field. You might need to hold down the Alt key while the tool is selected in order to see the mnemonics on the menus and buttons.

Macintosh Menus

On the Apple Macintosh platform, the location of menus in MATLAB has changed. In this version, menus in MATLAB are not located at the top of the screen with other screen menus for the Macintosh environment. Instead, MATLAB menus appear within the MATLAB desktop and MATLAB tools. This change was made because of a problem with screen menus that caused MATLAB on the Macintosh platform to crash.

Running Functions — Command Window and Command History

Preferences for Parentheses Matching Added

There are now Command Window preferences you can set to perform parenthesis matching. Select File > Preferences > Command Window > Keyboard and Indenting to set them. With the preference Match parentheses while typing selected, when you type a parenthesis or another delimiter, MATLAB highlights the matched parenthesis or other delimiter in the pair. With the preference Match parentheses on arrow key or mouse movement selected, when you move over a parenthesis or another delimiter, MATLAB highlights the matched parenthesis or other delimiter in the pair. MATLAB also alerts you to mismatches. These preferences also allow you to specify how MATLAB notifies you of matches and mismatches.

Clear Command Window Now Available from Context Menu

You can now select Clear Command Window from the context menu in the Command Window. A confirmation dialog box does not appear and the Command Window clears immediately. If you want a confirmation dialog box to appear before the Command Window clears, use Edit > Clear Command Window instead.

End Key Behavior Changes

With the Display preference for Wrap lines selected, pressing End moves the cursor to the end of the current statement. When the Command line key bindings preference is set to Emacs (MATLAB standard), you can also do this using Ctrl+E. In the previous version, End (and Ctrl+E) moved the cursor to the end of the current line.

Help

Own Help Files Now Allow Special Icons

When you supply your own help files, you can now specify the type of icon that appears in the Help browser Contents pane via the <help_contents_icon> tag in the info.xml file. For details, see Providing Your Files in the Help Browser.

Workspace, Search Path, and File Operations

Array Editor: F2 Keyboard Shortcut Added to Edit Current Element

A keyboard shortcut to use instead of double-clicking a cell is F2 (or Ctrl+U on the Macintosh platform), which allows you to edit the current element, positioning the cursor at the end of the element.

Array Editor: Single Quotation Marks Now Supplied for Strings During Paste from Excel

When you copy data from the Microsoft® Excel® application and paste it into a cell array in the Array Editor using the menu item Edit > Paste Excel Data, MATLAB assumes the values are strings and automatically supplies the single quotation marks if they cannot be interpreted as numeric values.

Current Directory Browser Comments Now Include First Line

When you select the Current Directory preference Show M-file comments and MAT-file contents, the help shown now includes the first comment line (also called the H1 line).

Current Directory Browser Auto-Refresh Rate Now Specifiable

The Current Directory browser preference for auto-refresh now allows you to specify the update time. By default, every 2 seconds the Current Directory browser checks for and reflects any changes you made to files and directories in the current directory using other applications.

In some cases when the current directory is on a network and the Current Directory browser is open, MATLAB becomes slow because of the auto-refresh feature. If you experience general slowness in MATLAB and have the Current Directory browser open, increase the default update time to improve responsiveness. If increases do not alleviate the slowness enough, clear the check box in preferences to turn auto-refresh off. Then you can manually refresh the display selecting Refresh from the context menu in the Current Directory browser.

Find Files Field Now Uses Selected Text

You can now select text in the Command Window or Editor and the Find Files dialog box enters that text in its Find files containing text field.

Editing and Debugging M-Files

Breakpoints Supported in Anonymous Functions

The Editor/Debugger supports breakpoints in anonymous functions. Lines containing anonymous functions can have more than one breakpoint in a line: one for the start of the line and one for each anonymous function in the line. A line that contains multiple breakpoints has a blue breakpoint icon.

dbstatus Supports Anonymous and Nested Functions

The dbstatus function now supports anonymous and nested functions, including a new '-completenames' argument. Running dbstatus('-completenames') displays, for each breakpoint, the absolute filename and the sequence of functions that nest the function containing the breakpoint.

Colors Now Maintained when Copying From Editor

When you paste a selection from the Editor into another application, such as Word, the Editor now maintains the syntax highlighting colors in the file in the other application. MATLAB pastes the selection to the clipboard in RTF format, which many applications for Windows and Macintosh platforms support.

Open Selection Now Works for Current Cursor Position

In an M-file, position the cursor within a subfunction, function, file, variable, or Simulink model, and press Ctrl+D (or right-click and select Open Selection). The item opens in the appropriate tool. In the previous version of MATLAB, you had to select the complete name in the M-file to use this feature. See Opening a Selection in an M-File for more information.

Source Control Interface

verctrl Function Does Not Support Handle

The verctrl function, available for Windows platforms only, was documented incorrectly. The documentation stated that you could create a handle, and showed the handle argument in the function syntax. You cannot create a handle, but must instead use a value of 0 for that field.

Publishing Results

Notebook Causes MATLAB to Become Automation Server

If you run Notebook from MATLAB and MATLAB is not an automation server, MATLAB will become an automation server. This is a change from Release 14, where MATLAB spawned a second instance that was an automation server.

Notebook Now Supports Office 2003

Notebook now supports Office 2003 (for XP); it is one of the notebook -setup options.

Notebook Support for Word 97 to Be Discontinued

The Microsoft Word 97 application is supported in this release, but will not be supported in future releases.

Compatibility Considerations.   If you use Word 97 with Notebook, move to a newer version of Word before moving to the next version of MATLAB.

  


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