MATLAB Known Software and Documentation Problems

Array Editor Problem When Editing Selection Within Cell

When you select a portion of the contents in a cell in the Array Editor, you cannot use the Edit menu Cut and Copy items. They only act on the entire cell. Instead use shortcuts like Ctrl+X or Ctrl+C, or the context menu items. For example, in a cell whose contents are 3.1416, you cannot select the 16 and then delete it using Edit -> Cut. Instead, select the 16 and delete it using Ctrl+X.

Cannot Change to Top Level Directory of a UNC Path

For Windows platforms, you cannot use cd or any directory tool in the MATLAB desktop (including the Current Directory browser and Set Path dialog box) to access the top level of a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path, that is, a path that starts with \\.

Cannot Save Datatips in Fig-File

If you save a figure with datatips as a Fig-File, the reloaded figure (hgload) will not contain the data tips.

Copying Button Group Produces Warning

If you make a copy of a uibuttongroup that contains radio buttons or toggle buttons, one or more warnings are issued similar to this:

Warning: Callback for uicontrol of style radiobutton will be overwritten  

This warning is a reflection of an internal mechanism and you can ignore it. Note that you should include code to control radio buttons and toggle buttons that are contained in a button group in the button group's SelectionChangeFcn callback, not in the radio buttons or toggle buttons Callback function.

Cutting From Current Directory Browser Sometimes Copies Instead

If you cut a file from the Current Directory browser, and then paste the file into a file system browser outside of MATLAB, such as Windows Explorer, the file remains in its original folder; the cut is effectively a copy. As a workaround, after moving a file to its new location, use Delete in the Current Directory browser to remove the file from its original location.

Datatips Do Not Work with Scatter Plots

You cannot display datatips on graphs created with scatter and scatter3.

Depfun fails if function name matches directory name.

The depfun function fails if passed a function name associated with a file in a directory with the same name.

For example, consider the demos function. which
demos
C:\MATLAB_R14 \toolbox\matlab\demos\demos.m

Here demos.m exists in the directory demos. depfun called with demos fails as follows: depfun('demos')
??? Error using ==> depfun>next_arg_file
'demos' argument is a directory. Must be a file

The workaround is to include the extension on the file. For example,

depfun('demos.m')

Desktop Tools Have Gray Background Color

For some UNIX platforms, the background color in Desktop Tools, such as the Editor/Debugger, is dark gray. By default, MATLAB uses system colors, which for some windows managers, is gray for backgrounds. To change the color, select File -> Preferences -> Colors and clear the check box for Use system colors. Then select a new Background color from the palette.

Editor File -> Open Problems

In the Editor, in certain circumstances when there are no files open, you might not be able to open a new file using File -> Open. As a workaround, first create a new empty M-file, and then use File -> Open.

Exception When Saving Files on Windows Platforms

When you save M-files on Windows platforms, MATLAB sometimes generates an exception in the Command Window and you cannot access the Save dialog box. If you restart MATLAB and try again, it should work. If you encounter the problem regularly, there is a workaround available--see the Technical Support Solution 36715 at http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/36715.shtml.

EXIST and WHICH don't find files with 2 extensions

If you have a file with 2 extensions (such as abc.def.txt), then EXIST and WHICH can't find it on the path. If you CD into its directory, then EXIST can find it, but not WHICH (because EXIST does additional work). Note that such a file is not a callable function in any case, because its name includes a dot.

Figure Undo Does Not Work in All Cases.

The Undo item on the Figure Edit menu does not always work correctly when used to undo operations performed with the plotting tools.

Figure Window Undo/Redo

In MATLAB version 7, fgure window undo/redo only works for a limited number of tools including zoom, pan, and rotate. Other actions like creating annotations are not supported.

For Windows NT, GUIDE Layout Editor Menus Labeled Incorrectly

On Windows NT platforms, the GUIDE Layout Editor menu names and menu items are mislabeled.

• Menu names. The menu toolbar should read as shown in this figure.

  Click the corresponding menu name to get the desired menu.

• Menu items. Names of menu items are correct but contain extraneous characters. The keyboard shortcuts work but the single character mnemonics do not.

For Windows NT, GUIDE Layout Editor Menus May Be Labeled Incorrectly

On Windows NT platforms, the GUIDE Layout Editor menu names and menu items may be mislabeled.

• Menu names. The menu toolbar should read as shown in this figure. Click the corresponding menu name to get the desired menu.

  

• Menu items. Names of menu items are correct but contain extraneous characters. The keyboard shortcuts work but the single character mnemonics do not.

ftell after fgets using fopen 'rt' on windows is incorrect for unix text files

If fopen 'rt' mode is used on the PC (windows) to read a unix text file, the output of ftell() will be incorrect although the file is read correctly. This is a bug in the windows OS.

UNIX text files have a linefeed (ascii 10) character at the end of each line. MAC text files have a carriage return (ascii 13) at the end of each line. WINDOWS text files have a carriage return (ascii 13) followed by a linefeed (ascii 10) at the end of each line.

All 3 types of text files are read correctly on windows, linux and mac using fopen 'r', 'rb' and 'rt'. Only the ftell output is incorrect, and only on windows, when reading a unix text file with the 'rt' mode in fopen.

Handle Type Not Supported in Exported GUI M-Files

If you assign object handles or function handles to uicontrol properties, GUIDE does not export the handles to GUI M-files.

Help Browser Printouts Lose Spaces with 12 Point Fonts

When you print from the Help browser and the font size preference is set to 12 pt, some spaces between words are lost, making that portion of the text illegible. As a workaround, change the font size preference for the Help browser, for example to 10 pt, to make the printing legible.

International Keyboard Caret (^) and Tilde (~) Keys Do Not Work on Linux

If you use an international keyboard on Linux platforms, MATLAB is affected by a known Java VM problem that prevents the use of any dead key+space bar combination. This key sequence does not hang MATLAB as it did in Release 13, but it does not type any character. For many international keyboards, the caret (^) key and the tilde (~) key use a dead key+space bar combination. See solution 33702 at http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/33702.shtml for known workarounds.

Keys Misinterpreted on Linux with XFree86 4.x

On Linux platforms with XFree86 4.x, when Num Lock is on, keys you type might be interpreted as hot keys instead of normal characters. This is because the keystrokes arrive in MATLAB with the META flag set. If you encounter this problem, turn off Num Lock.

LaTeX Feature Limitations on Solaris, HPUX, and Macintosh

The computer modern fonts that ship with MATLAB (located in the matlab/sys/fonts/type1/cm directory) do not dynamically load on Solaris, HPUX, and Macintosh. Consult your system administrator to install computer fonts.

lookfor Does Not Display Results Immediately

When you run lookfor, results do not appear in the Command Window as they are found. They instead display when lookfor finishes processing, or when you press Ctrl+C.

Macintosh: Dragging Text Sometimes Fails

On the Macintosh platform, when you select the last line of text and another line of text in the Editor or Command Window, and then drag the text to move it, the operation sometimes fails and an exception might be reported. As a workaround, cut or copy and paste the text instead of dragging it.

MATLAB 7 may be more sensitive to spaces than earlier versions

We have made some changes in the way that MATLAB distinguishes between command dual statements like hold on and expressions. In particular, we use a heuristic that behaves like earlier MATLAB versions most of the time, but can sometimes recognize something as command dual when an expression was intended. For example, xxx {1} attempts to call the function called 'xxx' and pass it the argument '{1}' If you wanted to access a variable called xxx, you should write it as xxx{1}

Memory Leak with Generic Opengl

Creating OpenGL figure windows on Windows with generic OpenGL (hardware acceleration disabled) leaks a bitmap. After a couple of thousand figure windows, this can cause the MATLAB process to run out of drawing resources and crash. Users who are creating extremely large numbers of figure windows should either use "opengl neverselect" or use hardware acceleration.

Nested quantifiers in regexp can cause inefficient failures

If a regular expression contains a parenthesized subexpression which is quantified, and the inner expression is quantified as well, for example '(.+)+'; it can take the parser a long time to determine that a match can not be made. The computational complexity of this problem is exponential with the number of characters in the string that must be tested. In most practical applications, it is not difficult to rewrite the inner expression to be more specific such that each backup doesn't introduce a new set of matches for the outer loop.

New algorithm for funm and logm introduces backward incompartibility.

In R13, the second output of FUNM is an error estimate which can often be misleading. In R14, FUNM(X,@FUN) uses a new algorithm which requires user to create a function FUN(X,K) that compute the kth derivative of the original function @FUN at X for k = 0,1... . Moreover, the second output is now an exit flag which indicates successful computation if equals to zero.

Printing Colored or Styled Text Not Working Properly for Command Window

When you select File -> Page Setup -> Layout and set the Syntax highlighting option to Colored text or Styled text, the highlighting in the Command Window printout will be incorrect. Instead, select the Black and white text option for Syntax highlighting.

Printing from Command Window or Editor on Windows 2000 Might Shut down MATLAB

On the Windows 2000 platform, when you print from the Command Window or Editor using some printers, MATLAB might produce an error and unexpectedly shut down. The problem stems from having a registered printer with an incompatible driver. Even if the default printer works, other registered printer drivers might be incorrect and can cause the problem. See solution 37455 at http://w ww.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/37455.shtml for known workarounds.

Printing on Macintosh Platform Sometimes Only Prints to Default Printer

On the Macintosh platform, when you try to print to a printer other than the default, MATLAB instead prints to the default printer. As a workaround, make the printer you want to print to become the default, print from MATLAB, and then reset the default printer to your usual setting.

Problem Docking Non-Resizable Figures

If a non-resizable figure ('Resize' property is 'off') is docked, then it is resizable while docked and its 'Resize' property is 'on'. But when it is subsequently undocked, the figure is not resizable interactively, even though the 'Resize', property is 'on'.

Resize Behavior for Figure Has Changed in R14.

On Windows platforms, when you resize a figure, the figure is redrawn only when you release the sizing pointer. The contents do not change while you are dragging the pointer. In effect, the Windows display property, Show window contents while dragging, is ignored. This property appears on the Effects tab of the Windows Display Properties dialog box.

Solaris Non-Modal Dialog Boxes Might Not Stay on Top of Parent Dialog Box

On the Solaris platform, non-modal dialog boxes might not stay on top of the parent window. This is especially problematic when the non-modal dialog is completely within the MATLAB desktop area and you then click on the desktop or minimize MATLAB; it is difficult to find the non-modal dialog again. To avoid that situation, keep non-modal dialogs at least partially outside of the MATLAB desktop area.

Starting MATLAB with /minimize Option Not Working

If you use the /minimize option when you start MATLAB, it will not work. That is, MATLAB will start with windows restored. As a workaround, use the /automation startup option instead. For example, use

D:\matlab\bin\win32\matlab.exe /automation

Symbol and Marlett fonts Not Supported in Editable Text Field Uicontrols

The Symbol and Marlett fonts are not supported in uicontrols with editable text fields. If the fontname of such a control is set to one of these fonts, "unknown character" boxes appear in place of the correct characters.

When a Uicontrol Has Focus, Key Press Does Not Cause MATLAB to Resume

When MATLAB is paused, pressing a key when a uicontrol component has focus no longer causes MATLAB to break out of the pause. To resume, click anywhere outside a uicontrol and then press any key.