The purpose of this book is to teach fundamentals of programming concepts and
skills needed for basic problem solving, all using MATLABW as the vehicle.
MATLAB is a powerful software package that has built-in functions to accomplish
a diverse range of tasks, from mathematical operations to three-dimensional
imaging. Additionally, MATLAB has a complete set of programming constructs
that allows users to customize programs to their own specifications.
The many books that introduce MATLAB come in two basic flavors: those that
demonstrate the use of the built-in functions in MATLAB, with a chapter or two
on some programming concepts; and those that cover only the programming
constructs without mentioning many of the built-in functions that make
MATLAB efficient to use. Someone who learns just the built-in functions will
be well-prepared to use MATLAB, but would not understand basic programming
concepts. That person would not be able to then learn a language such
as Cþþ or Java without taking another introductory course or reading another
book on the programming concepts. Conversely, anyone who learns only programming
concepts first (using any language) would tend to write highly inefficient
code using control statements to solve problems, not realizing that in
many cases these are not necessary in MATLAB.
This book instead takes a hybrid approach, introducing both the programming
and efficient uses. The challenge for students is that it is nearly impossible to
predict whether they will in fact need to know programming concepts later
or whether a software package such as MATLAB will suffice for their careers.
Therefore, the best approach for beginning students is to give them both: the
programming concepts and the efficient built-in functions. Since MATLAB is
very easy to use, it is a perfect platform for this approach to teaching programming
and problem solving.