improvements in matlab compatibility

[Anders Holtsberg]

During the 4 hour work on converting the statistics stuff
today I have collected the most urgent questions/suggestions
for matlab compatibility.

=== 1 ===

        The notation  y = x(:)  does not work. This is 
        very much cleaner than  y = reshape(x,prod(size(x)),1).
        And  A(find(A>0))  should give me a column vector.
        Please copy the matlab conventions since they are
        very effective. Also x(:,ones(m,1)) for a column vector
        x  is very useful.

=== 2 ===

        y(:) = x  does not work either. y = reshape(x,size(y,1),size(y,2))
        is not more readable or writable. And while we're at it:
        y(find(y<0)) = 0  with scalar right hand side will work
        in matlab 5.0 says mathworks, this is a good thing too.

=== 3 ===

        Skip the "warning: empty matrix found in matrix list"-
        error message. I know what I'm doing.

=== 4 ===

        Skip the read-only property of I and J. I want to
        use them as I want too. Besides I already have written
        matlab-programs with lots of I and J.

=== 5 ===
 
        The old style  rand  crashes many programs. rand([3 4]) 
        means a 3 x 4 - matrix im matlab 4.x, not a 1 x 2 one.
        This will be changed in octave I think somebody said?

Best wishes

Andy

======= Anders Holtsberg ====================== http://www.maths.lth.se ===
  . .:  Department of Mathematical Statistics   phone  +46 46 104276    ..
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