Matlab+Alternative

If you like the flexibility and convenience of Matlab, but hate the prohibitive price and licensing fees of Matlab like me, there are a few alternatives out there that can perform just as well. Here we introduce Freemat and Octave.

[|Freemat]
For windows installation, first go to [|Download] page and get the most recent installation file **FreeMat-4.2.beta.exe**. Click on the downloaded exe file and go through the standard installation procedures (require > 400 MB disk space!).

After successful installation, click on the FreeMat icon from the desktop (or from start -> all programs), and start the program:



Now you can start typing commands after the '--->' prompt (e.g., a= 1:10)

You can save all your course related files into a directory (e.g., my-phy408) and enter that directory before typing any commands or reading/writing files:



You can bring up an editor window by clicking File -> New File.

Have fun.

[|GNU Octave]
If you already have a Mac or Linux laptop/desktop, then you should be able to find the latest package for your computer from the standard software repositories (search for octave). However, getting octave to work on windows machine can be a bit more tricky. [|Here is a very good article on this subject].