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Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Matlab interface to USRP


From: Gregory Maxwell
Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Matlab interface to USRP
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 14:41:43 -0400

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Jeff Brower <address@hidden> wrote:
>  I agree with Eric, well said.  My one exception is your reasoning based on 
> what
>  features MATLAB and/or GNU Radio have or don't have.  If you ask colleagues 
> "why do
>  you need to use MATLAB" they will say because it's what their company has 
> available,
>  what their colleagues use, it's a widely accepted technical programming 
> language for
>  publishing papers, etc.  If you ask students, they will say "because my Prof 
> said
>  so".  A lot of pragmatic reasons.

Thats fine for them. I endorse their use of matlab. Three cheers for
them. Fantastic.

>  As you said, a moral argument (or in my terms, an ideological argument) 
> isn't going
>  to accomplish much.  But if GNU Radio gracefully plays with MATLAB, at least 
> at the
>  data exchange and function-callable level, then you open the door for the 
> other
>  culture to walk in -- and discover just how far GNU Radio software and 
> hardware has
>  advanced.  That's a great way to attract new adherents and supporters.

It's also a great way to make GNU radio useless to anyone who can't
afford matlab. As I was told on IRC "every researcher has access to
matlab", so of course if GNU radio deeply integrates matlab then many
people will incorporate Matlab-only features into their projects since
the mindset is "every researcher has access to matlab" even though far
from everyone does...

Why bother?  There are hardware decks specifically built for matlab
which are less costly than USRP.  ... and a USRP driver for matlab
could probably be written with comparable effort to matlab support in
GNUradio.

If someone simply wants some compatibility for their own matlab
language code, there is octave.. but it seems that idea is being
categorically rejected because what is wanted is just a shim to use
USRP from matlab.  Their needs could probably be best served by a USRP
driver for matlab.




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