Learning to Program with MATLAB: Building GUI Tools

To learn how to program a computer in a modern language with serious graphical capabilities, is to take hold of a tool of remarkable flexibility that has the power to provide profound insight. This text is primarily aimed at being a first course in programming, and is oriented toward integration with science, mathematics, and engineering. It is also useful for more advanced students and researchers who want to rapidly acquire the ability to easily build useful graphical tools for exploring computational models. The MATLAB programming language provides an excellent introductory language, with built-in graphical, mathematical, and user-interface capabilities. The goal is that the student learns to build computational models with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that enable exploration of model behavior. This GUI tool-building approach has been used at multiple educational levels: graduate courses, intermediate undergraduate courses, an introductory engineering course for first-year college students, and high school junior and senior-level courses.

The MATLAB programming language, descended from FORTRAN, has evolved to include many powerful and convenient graphical and analysis tools. It has become an important platform for engineering and science education, as well as research. MATLAB is a very valuable first programming language, and for many will be the preferred language for most, ...