FreeMat / News: Recent posts

We are pleased to announce the release of FreeMat 3.6. This is primarily a bugfix release that adds a few new features, mostly to the UI. Here is the list of changes:

* Added ODE45 solver from Sebastien Loisel
* Added SVG support for exporting figures.
* Added "recent files" to editor.
* Added keyboard shortcuts to editor and main application menus.
* Added increase/decrease indent by tab/shift-tab in editor
* Added execute button to debug toolbar
* Added quiver plots
* Added execute-selected-text button
* Added directory-change tool to main toolbar, and rearranged windows on the main page.
* Second pass at the JIT compiler. Completion of the JIT and it's general activation will wait for FreeMat4.
* Display of complex numbers
* Helpwin now accepts an argument.
* Replaced the toolbox with a tabbed widget.
* Code clean up for -Wall.
* Improved the behavior of editor when opening and saving (new)files.
* Corrected norms of double args on 64 bit machines
* Interplin1 now works with more argument types.
* Any, all, min and max handle empties more gracefully.
* Corrected color display of RGB images
* Modified bitcmp function for compatibility with matlab
* Modified fprintf to follow matlab's behavior when no handle is specified.
* Set default view for 3D plots to view(3).
* Fixes for anonymous functions and code block leaks.
* Fixed the "comment" and "uncomment" bugs when applying to the whole
* Fixed failed feval for local functions
* Fixed program crash after clear history.
* Fixed bug in complex matrix assignment operators.... read more

Hi,

We're pleased to be announce the availability of FreeMat 3.5. Here is the list of changes since 3.4:

* Fixed path detection problem on win32 (forward vs backward slashes)
* Added ability to change the scrollback length via edit->preferences menu
* Fixed diary command so that commands are echoed as well as their outputs
* Fixed diary so that the commands are echoed as well as the outputs.
* Added fflush command.
* Added ctrl-w to clear the current line
* Changed sort algorithm to a stable one.
* Fixed bug in linspace
* Added the new ctype interface - thanks to Scott McOlash for suggesting it, and GE Global Research for letting us release it under the GPL.
* Converted FFTW to estimate mode from measure mode - should fix problems with long FFT times for large FFTs
* Added stack trace on errors, even when not in dbauto on mode.
* Improved the autoconfig script for mac builds.
* Moved loadlib and import to external documentation section
* Added external section to the documentation
* Changed the default mode for "image" command" to "scaled" instead of "direct". This is less compatible with MATLAB, but I don't think it's unreasonably so.
* Added "edit" command.
* Changed default type for zero function to double precision.
* Added imagesc command. Modified image command to show un-scaled images. ... read more

We are pleased to announce the release of FreeMat 3.3. Available for download from http://freemat.sf.net. Here is a brief summary of the new features in this version:

1. The output format for FreeMat is now closer to MATLABs, and can be adjusted using the format command.
2. The console window has been rewritten, and should be more robust and faster.
3. Contour plots in 2D and 3D are now supported, along with labels.
4. Anonymous functions are now supported.
5. Nested functions are now supported
6. Audio record/playback functionality has been added via the wavplay/wavrecord/etc. functions.
7. Memory usage has been improved. FreeMat should use less memory than previous versions.
8. Performance improvements.
9. Many new functions added. See the detailed change list for the complete list.
10. Bug fixes. See the detailed change list for the complete list.... read more

FreeMat 3.2 has been released - it fixes some library dependency issues on the Mac, and some build issues on Linux.

The latest version of FreeMat (3.1) has just been released. Beyond the usual bug fixes, this version of FreeMat includes a new Threading API, which allows you to take advantage of multi-core and multi-processor machines from within your FreeMat programs. You can also perform powerful Perl-style regular expression manipulations in 3.1 using the regexp command, and its variants. A new, unified multi-platform regression test suite is now shipped with FreeMat (as the run_tests command), which allows you to verify the functionality of your installation. Plotting functions have been improved through the use of an explicit double-buffering technique which eliminates flicker during plot updates. Note that to increase compatibility with MATLAB, you must now include explicit drawnow commands to get updates within scripts. FreeMat also has new functions for reading URLs, and parsing HTML and XML files. The help window has a search tool now to help you quickly locate functions and help topics. The memory usage of FreeMat has been significantly improved - so that FreeMat operates with less memory and should run faster than previous versions. Also, you can now specify a script startup.m that is automatically executed at startup time.

The Mac bundle was flawed. I have uploaded a fixed version. Thanks to Masahiro Takatsuka for pointing out the problem.

The current release of FreeMat is 3.0. It represents a significant improvement over the prior release (2.0). Here is a partial list of the changes:
MATLAB-style GUIs and Widgets
Speed improvements (loops and indexing operations are 10 to 100 times faster)
A new parser that recognizes more of the MATLAB syntax
A debugger that is integrated with the editor
Support for 64-bit integers
Improved MAT-file support
Universal binary support for Mac OS X
New graph/plot tools to rotate, zoom and pan plots.
Builds are now based on ATLAS for improved matrix performance
Various bug fixes.

A new release of freemat is now available from the website http://freemat.sf.net. This is primarily a bugfix release, although some new features have been added as well. The release notes are below:

FreeMat has reverted to the autotools build system. Hopefully this will solve some of the build problems people were facing with the 2.0RC1 release. This release adds many new MATLAB-compatibility functions and scripts (special thanks to M. Vogel for the help). A number of finite-precision related bugs were fixed in the range operator (: and : :). Support for reading and writing csv files was added. The output format code was rewritten to make more efficient use of the screen. The default Qt style was set to plastique on X11 platforms (use the -noplastique flag to override). Text-based help was fixed on all platforms. Support was added for a traditional Linux install (non package based) that should adhere to the LSF rules. ... read more

Its been nearly a year (!) since the last release of FreeMat. A new version is now ready for testing. I have elected to release it as a Release Candidate instead of a full release because of the significant changes that have been made since version 1.10. Please post support requests/bugs or feature requests to the usual place http://freemat.sf.net. Here is just a short list of the new features.
* Handle-based Graphics including 3D surface plots, multiple plots per figure, and full customization of axes properties. Preliminary support for OpenGL rendering.
* Support for MATLAB-style classes and object oriented programming, including operator overloading.
* New GUI interface based on Qt4. FreeMat now sports a new terminal interface, a highlighting editor, and some new tools.
* Speed improvements and optimizations (some loops are 10-100 times faster).
* Preliminary support for reading and writing MATLAB .MAT files.
* PDF output on all platforms.
* New build system based on qmake.
* Many new MATLAB-compatibility functions and scripts.
* Native Aqua application on Mac OS X.
* Linux distribution now includes a binary release that should run on several distributions.
* Over 200 new pages of documentation, and an improved built in help browser.
The new release of FreeMat is under the GNU Public License.

Freemat is an intepreted, matrix-oriented development environment for engineering and scientific applications, similar to the commercial package MATLAB. It is available for Unix, Win32 and Mac OS X. This version features significant improvements over 1.09, including:
- sparse matrix support, including manipulation, solution of linear systems and eigenproblems,
- debug support - ability to set and manage breakpoints, and step through code, as well as auto stop when errors occur.
- better MATLAB compatibility through more support scripts
- GUI usability enhancements
- as well as the usual host of bug fixes.

Freemat is an intepreted, matrix-oriented development environment for engineering and scientific applications, similar to the commercial package MATLAB. It is available for Unix, Win32 and Mac OS X. This release features a number of critical bug fixes including fixes to the GUI version of FreeMat.

Freemat is an intepreted, matrix-oriented development environment for engineering and scientific applications, similar to the commercial package MATLAB. It is available for Unix, Win32 and Mac OS X. This release features a number of bug fixes, a new cross-platform GUI, and online help on all supported platforms. Mac OS X users will also no longer need an X11 server to run FreeMat.

FreeMat 1.07 has been released! This version is a major enhancement over 1.06, and includes more linear algebra support (QR, SVD, generalized EVD, etc.), a host of new random number generators, special function support (gamma, erf, etc.), support for creating stand alone binaries from scripts on Linux, enhanced plotting functions, and better error reporting. Check out http://freemat.sf.net for details.

A critical bug was found in 1.05 that broke code using the pass-by-reference feature of FreeMat. Instead of replacing the 1.05 images and risking a fractured release, I opted to post a new one. The next release will be more substantial.

An updated version of FreeMat is now available. Besides a number of important bug fixes, this version features better error reporting, a functioning MPI interface (for parallel algorithm development) and a Mac OS X bundle.

FreeMat version 1.04 has been released. It includes an MPI interface that allows you to develop parallel and distributed algorithms using the Message Passing Interface standard in the comfort of a FreeMat environment. Note that there is currently no MPI support for Windows.

A new version of FreeMat has been released. This is a minor bug fix.

FreeMat 1.01 (a minor bug fix and repackaging of the source) has been released. The website freemat.sf.net has also been posted.

I have removed the Un*x source code package from the release. There is a problem with the build and I am trying to sort it out. Will upload the updated package as soon as possible.

FreeMat 1.0 has been released. FreeMat is an interactive, fully functional environment for engineering and scientific applications. It implements a matrix-driven language (which is largely compatible with MATLAB), with advanced features such as 2-D plotting, image manipulation and viewing, a codeless interface to external C/C++/FORTRAN libraries, native support for various C types, and a host of other features. Download it today and try it out!