MATLAB Release Notes

External Interface/API Upgrade Issues

The issues involved in upgrading from MATLAB 6.5 to MATLAB 7.0, in terms of external interface/API features, are discussed in the Programming and Data Types Upgrade Issues, and below:

• Changes to MAT-Files
• Optional Input Arguments to COM Methods
• Display of Interface Handles
• Identifying Dependencies When MEX-Files Don't Load
• Recompile MEX-Files on GLNX86 and Macintosh
• Shared Libaries Now In /bin/$ARCH

Changes to MAT-Files

Changes to MAT-files in MATLAB 7.0 are described under Programming Features:

• Making Release 14 MAT-files Readable in Earlier Versions
• MAT-Files Generated By Release 14 Beta2 Must Be Reformatted
• Reserved Bytes in MAT-File Header

Caution    MAT-files saved in MATLAB version 7.0 without using the new -nounicode flag will not be readable in previous versions of MATLAB. See Making Release 14 MAT-files Readable in Earlier Versions.

Optional Input Arguments to COM Methods

When calling a method that takes optional input arguments, you can skip any optional argument by specifying an empty array ([]) in its place. The syntax for invoke with the second argument (arg2) not specified is as follows:

• invoke(handle, 'methodname', arg1, [], arg3);
  

See the section, Optional Input Arguments in the External Interfaces documentation for more information.

Display of Interface Handles

MATLAB has changed the way it displays a COM interface in this release. For example, the string used to represent an interface in MATLAB 6.5 was

• [1x1 Interface.excel.application.Workbooks]
  

MATLAB 7.0 represents this same interface with the following string:

• [1x1 Interface.Microsoft_Excel_9.0_Object_Library.Workbooks]
  

Identifying Dependencies When MEX-Files Don't Load

If MEX-files don't load on the PC the error message is not informative. The dependency is a very useful tool distributed with MSVC. It is also freely available from www.dependencywalker.com. In R15, we will incorporate some kind of dependency walker into our MEX loader but for now, we will point users to the web site.

Recompile MEX-Files on GLNX86 and Macintosh

On GLNX86 and Macintosh systems, all MEX-files that can throw errors need to be recompiled for R14.

In Release 14, MATLAB uses C++ exception handling. MEX-files built prior to R14 did not support C++ exceptions.

For example, write a C MEX-file that just calls mexErrMsgTxt. If you build this with a release prior to Release 14 and run it, the program aborts MATLAB. If you build this with Release 14 and run it, MATLAB will handle the exception correctly.

Shared Libaries Now In /bin/$ARCH

Shared libraries previously residing in directory $MATLAB/extern/lib/$ARCH are now in $MATLAB/bin/$ARCH.

Graphics Upgrade Issues

Creating Graphical User Interface (GUIDE) Upgrade Issues

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