Desktop Tools and Development Environment Features

MATLAB Release Notes

Desktop Tools and Development Environment Features

Documentation of new features and enhancements in MATLAB 7.0.4 Desktop Tools and Development Environment is organized by these topics:

Installation Folder with Spaces

In R14SP2 the following two changes have been made to the MathWorks Installer on Windows systems:

The Installer now allows a folder name with spaces in the installation path.
The Installer honors the Windows default installation folder, which on most machines is Program Files.

These changes were made in response to many customer requests and the desire to conform to a widely established industry practice for the PC platform.

Note MathWorks products are used and integrated into many software environments. If you use MathWorks products in conjunction with other third party applications (compilers, other numerical analysis packages, etc.) you might want to continue installing into a folder that does not have spaces in the path until you have tested that those applications work with MathWorks products. See the R14Sp2 Late Breaking News for a list of applications that are known to have issues working in this environment.

Startup and Shutdown

When quitting MATLAB, a confirmation dialog box appears if you set a new preference for that purpose. By default, the confirm quitting preference is not set, so the dialog box will not appear. To change the preference, see the instructions for Confirmation Dialogs in the desktop documentation.
MATLAB is now using Java (JVM) 1.5 on Windows, Linux (32-bit), and Solaris platforms. Java is supplied with MATLAB, so this change requires no action on your part.

Desktop

There are new preferences for displaying or not displaying confirmation dialog boxes for desktop tools. In previous versions, some of these preferences existed but were located with other preferences for the associated desktop tool. They are now organized in one preference panel for all desktop tools. Access them by selecting File -> Preferences -> General -> Confirmation Dialogs. These preferences work in conjunction with the Do not show this prompt again check boxes that appears on various desktop confirmation dialog boxes. For more information, see Confirmation Dialogs in the desktop documentation.

Running Functions--Command Window and History

The Command Window now supports overwrite mode. Press the Insert key to enter text in overwrite mode. Press the Insert key again to return to entering text in insert mode. View the current state at the far right end of the status bar of the Command Window when it is undocked, or in the desktop when the Command Window is docked and has focus. In insert mode, OVR in the status bar is gray and the cursor has a wide block shape.
Set the color of hyperlinks that display in the Command Window. Select File -> Preferences -> Command Window, and under Display, select Hyperlink color.

Workspace, Search Path, and File Operations

You can now specify how you want decimal numbers to be formatted when you cut or copy cells from the Array Editor and paste them into text files or other applications. The Decimal separator to use when copying edit field is by default "." (period). If you are working in or providing data to a locale that uses a different character to delimit decimals, type that character in this edit field and click OK or Apply.
The Workspace browser preferences panel was removed. The entry on that panel was for confirming deletion of variables. That preference is now part of General -> Confirmation Dialogs preferences.
There are new Current Directory browser preferences you can access by selecting File -> Preferences -> Current Directory Browser, Browser display options:

View the file size by selecting the Show file sizes check box. (This is selected by default.)
View brief Simulink model descriptions in the Description column when Show M and MDL file descriptions is selected.
View the complete Simulink model description in the lower pane when the preference for Show M, MDL and MAT file contents is selected. This allows you to view information about a model without running Simulink.

Editing and Debugging M-Files

Go directly to a subfunction or nested function within an M-file using the enhanced Go To dialog box. Access the dialog box by selected Edit -> Go To. Click the Name column header to arrange the list of functions alphabetically, or click the Line column header to arrange the list by the position of the functions in the file.
You can now access the MATLAB Help browser from the MATLAB stand-alone Editor. This provides you with documentation for MATLAB, including using Editor features and MATLAB functions.
The Show dialog prompt preference has been moved to Preferences - > General -> Confirmation Dialogs. For more information, see Confirmation Dialogs in the desktop documentation.
Now, when you drag text from the Editor/Debugger to another application, it maintains the syntax highlighting and font characteristics.

Source Control Interface

There is a new source control interface feature for Windows platforms, Register Project with MATLAB. Use this to associate all files in a directory with a source control project. You perform this for any file in a directory, which registers the directory and all files in that directory. You only perform this once in a directory, and must perform it before you perform any other source control actions for files in that directory.

Access the feature in the Current Directory browser by right-clicking a file and selecting Source Control -> Register Your Source Control System Project with MATLAB from the context menu. You can also access it from the Editor/Debugger File menu. To access the feature for Simulink or Stateflow files, use the Current Directory browser.

In previous releases, this feature was part of the Add to Source Control feature. You still need to add each file to source control, but you do this after first registering the directory that contains the file.

For a summary of the process, see the topic Source Control Interface on Windows Platforms in the desktop documentation.

Publishing Results

The files created when publishing using cells now have more natural extensions. For example, JPEG-files now have a .jpg instead of a .jpeg extension, and EPSC2-files now have an .eps instead of an .epsc2 extension.
Publishing to LaTeX now respects the image file type you specify in preferences rather than always using EPSC2-files.

New Features Mathematics Features