Re: Visual programming language and matlab



On Oct 8, 3:39 pm, Bryan <bryans.spam.t...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A few weeks ago I posted a message asking about porting matlab
functions to open-source alternatives (to save money on matlab
licenses).  After much study and deliberation (and the surprise
finding that I could install matlabs MATLAB Compiler Runtime free onto
all my computers) I've decided to go the route of compiling stand-
alone matlab functions, rather than switching to an open source
option.

The original post can be viewed here: >http://groups.google.ca/group/
sci.image.processing/browse_frm/thread/
10fe355722696d95/5ac1dd9fe36983ef?lnk=gst&q=heit#5ac1dd9fe36983ef

The question that came up repetitively was how to make this user
friendly.  Most of our matlab routines are intended to be used as
"modules" under control of a mater script.  Since all of our matlab
functions are controlled entirely from command-line options, we were
thinking that it may be ideal to use some sort of visual scripting/
programming language to control the functions.  Aside from making
things more user friendly, custom routines could be easily created
simply by scripting existing functions together in new ways.  This
sort of system would be hugely beneficial, as we are currently swamped
with hundreds of matlab "master scripts" where people have written
matlab functions to string together other previously written matlab
functions to do whatever analysis they are trying to do.

The biggest downside of this method would be the need to pass data
between functions in the form of temporary files, but then again, the
amounts of data we are currently processing already requires the use
of temp files so this wouldn't change things much.

Has anyone implemented this type of control over matlab functions?
Does anyone know of a good virtual scripting/programming language that
would be good for controlling such command-line functions.  For that
matter is "visual scripting" the correct term for what I want to do*

*by visual scripting, I mean that each function is represented by an
icon.  You drag the icons into order, connect outputs to inputs via
drawing lines.  Often, info is entered into the icons to control
variables.  LabVIEW kinda works in this fashion, I think olympus has
image acquisition software that also works in this manner.

Once again, money is a bit of an issue, so open source or inexpensive
packages would be preferred.

Thanx

Bryan

-----------------------------------
Bryan:
You're right that MATLAB has certain limitations as far as being a
perfect image processing program. It is command line based but you
can string together command lines into a script and even use regular
control language (like for loops, if statements, etc.) as you can with
andy programming language. It does have a dialog box editor called
GUIDE that allows you to build custom windows to control various
operations of your program. However it is primitive - think like
Visual Basic 3, or about 10-15 years ago. They do have a visual kind
of program to build up programs from icons which represent functions.
This is The MathWorks Simulink program (rather than MATLAB) so you
should look into that if that is what you want to do. Personally I
prefer the traditional source code type of programming so I use their
MATLAB product, but like I said, it's not the user-friendliest program
around (you might try ImagePro Plus for that).
Regards,
ImageAnalyst
.



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