MATLAB Guide

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Following review posted on amazon.co.uk

I liked this book. I spend a good proportion of my working life talking about MATLAB and it is refreshing to find a text which focuses upon what the user wants to do and sees MATLAB as being a means to an end, rather than a reproduction of the reference manual. The book reads well and has a clear organisation. Having a close relationship with MATLAB means I am often asked about books on the subject, and this is one I would be very happy to recommend.

Dr Philip Clarke, The MathWorks Ltd.

Rating:
Summary: Not a good book for beginners
Review: I am going to also write a review on "Mastering Matlab 6.0", I will be also comparing the two books in the reviews. It is the basis of my review here. I am assuming (seee below) that one has learned Matlab at the beginning level and is looking for a book to get you to the Journeyman level.

If you are considering Matlab as a scientific computing language - look no more. It has licensened the "Maple Kernal" as part of its "Math Symbolic ToolBox", it uses LAPAK from FORTRAN for the algorithms for Matrix operations; it uses a high level language (very C++ like) and its own consise syntax for matrix manipulations as well as "Handle Graphics" to produce impressive looking plots and reports. In otherwords, it combines the best of various approaches. If you do not know C++, I advise that learn that first before attempting to learn Matlab.

Comparing "Mastering Matlab 6" (MM6) to "Matlab Guide" (MG):

*Both books are NOT for absolute Beginners, I think the assumption is that you will first study the book that comes with Matlab and the supurb "Help" Documentation that comes with the program. There are also good starting out tutorials on the net - search: "Matlab; Tutorial". The US Navy has a consise tutorial to get you started.

*MM6 does a better job on teaching to the next level beyond the Mathworks supplied documentation and beggining Tutorials.

Where Matlab Guide falls short compared to MM6: *MM6 WINS HANDSDOWN ON TEACHING version new to 6.0 specific features. You are short changing yourself by going for a 5.0 text. It is not as well cross referenced as MM6. "Where is the code to solve real world problems" is a grievance I have with MG.

*MM6 is geared more towards a programmer/scientist/engineer really needs to know; whereas, MG is geared to a mathematician. If you want "A survey of Mathematics with Matlab as your Guide" (a more appropriate title in my opinion) then this (MG) is your book. This book really jumps around. Example: Fibonacci sequence on p9, Collatz iteration on p10, Systems of Linear Ordinary Differential Equations on p12, Sierpinski gasket (fractal geometry) on p.17....

WHAT IS MISSING in MG: * Matlab 6.0 specific features. * Extending Matlab with Programming languages * Integrating it in with Windows./GUIs/ Dialog boxes.

Don't get me wrong, I eventually will read all of this book and learn a lot of math in the process - but to get to the Journeyman level in Matlab as an engineer or scientist, I reccomend MM6 instead. If you want to get real math specific, MG is your choice - but you will not learn as much Matlab and problem solving with Matlab.

Rating:
Summary: Not a good book for beginners
Review: I bought this book because I saw the good reviews about it here. I just started to learn Matlab, so what I really need is a book that can describe things clearly, and STEP BY STEP. When I was reading the first chapter, which is a small Matlab tutorial (The authors stressed that the readers should walk through chapter one), I got so frustrated because there are so many functions and procedures I don't know and the authors don't explain (They defend this in their preface though). I moved on to the rest of the book and I found that it happens everywhere: this book keeps jumping on some fancy math subjects without explaining clearly the fundermentals. They didn't bother to explain the syntax for lots of programs.
I gave up on this book. What I had to do is find a online tutorial to get me started. I did find one good tutorial from University of Dundee, you can search its website in google. I am going to keep Matlab Guide in case I need it some time. But for starters, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Triple C - concise, comprehensive, captivating
Review: Matlab Guide is a clearly written, well structured and quite comprehensive account of the capabilities of Matlab. In each chapter, the material explained swiftly progresses from the simple to the more complex, making this book a concise source of information and an excellent reference for the intermediate to advanced Matlab user. The focus is on mathematical topics; the pieces of example code are a nice mixture of playful toys and serious applications. Also, the book contains important hints concerning efficient programming, it has a very agreeable layout, and the citations at the end of each chapter do their job in keeping the reader's mood at a high level. Clearly, absolute beginners may have a hard time working their way through it, and the coverage of isolated topics, like file input/output, is a little meager. However, this is only a minor point. All in all, so far having used matlab primarily for data analysis (electrophysiology) I very much enjoyed and benfited from a fresh look at it from a different perspective.

Rating:
Summary: Triple C - concise, comprehensive, captivating
Review: Matlab Guide is a clearly written, well structured and quite comprehensive account of the capabilities of Matlab. In each chapter, the material explained swiftly progresses from the simple to the more complex, making this book a concise source of information and an excellent reference for the intermediate to advanced Matlab user. The focus is on mathematical topics; the pieces of example code are a nice mixture of playful toys and serious applications. Also, the book contains important hints concerning efficient programming, it has a very agreeable layout, and the citations at the end of each chapter do their job in keeping the reader's mood at a high level. Clearly, absolute beginners may have a hard time working their way through it, and the coverage of isolated topics, like file input/output, is a little meager. However, this is only a minor point. All in all, so far having used matlab primarily for data analysis (electrophysiology) I very much enjoyed and benfited from a fresh look at it from a different perspective.

Rating:
Summary: A serious book for all users of MATLAB
Review: This is a book that doesn't ignore that MATLAB is a tool for mathematicians, but at the same doesn't alienate the non-specialist.

Starting with a basic tutorial and continuing with useful short cuts and introductions to script files, functions and graphics this book gives the reader an immediate working knowledge of the basic functions and data structures of MATLAB.

Later chapters address linear algebra (with treatment of eigenvalue problems, linear systems and matrix decompositions) and numerical methods (for differential equations and other problems); both with enough mathematical background and each topic can be accessed independently.

The book finishes with important topics such as optimizing functions, input and output, use of the Symbolic Toolbox and a final chapter with more tricks and tips.

You are left convinced that the authors are extensive users and admirers of this software, and through this book the reader can become the same.