They decided to reprogram MATLAB in C and market it for the IBM desktops that were replacing mainframe computers at the time. Moler would leave copies at universities he visited and the software developed a strong following in the math departments of university campuses.

At the time, MATLAB was distributed for free to universities.

Early versions of MATLAB were simple matrix calculators with 71 pre-built functions. The software was disclosed to the public for the first time in February 1979 at the Naval Postgraduate School in California. The first early version of MATLAB was completed in the late 1970s. There were no programs, no toolboxes, no graphics. In the beginning (before version 1.0) MATLAB 'was not a programming language it was a simple interactive matrix calculator. This was followed by Fortran code for linear equations in 1971. He developed MATLAB's initial linear algebra programming in 1967 with his one-time thesis advisor, George Forsythe. Moler became a math professor at the University of New Mexico and started developing MATLAB for his students as a hobby. The idea for MATLAB was based on his 1960s PhD thesis. MATLAB was invented by mathematician and computer programmer Cleve Moler. They come from various backgrounds of engineering, science, and economics. An additional package, Simulink, adds graphical multi-domain simulation and model-based design for dynamic and embedded systems.Īs of 2020, MATLAB has more than 4 million users worldwide. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages.Īlthough MATLAB is intended primarily for numeric computing, an optional toolbox uses the MuPAD symbolic engine allowing access to symbolic computing abilities. MATLAB (an abbreviation of 'MATrix LABoratory' ) is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks.

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