New book: Undocumented Secrets of MATLAB-Java Programming

November 17, 2011 14 Comments

Quick links: Table of Contents Book organization FAQ About the author Errata list
I am extremely pleased to announce that after five years of research and hard work, my book on Undocumented Secrets of Matlab-Java Programming is finally published.
For a variety of reasons, the Matlab-Java interface was never fully documented. This is really quite unfortunate: Java is one of the most widely used programming languages, having many times the number of programmers and programming resources as Matlab. Also unfortunate is the popular claim that while Matlab is a fine programming platform for prototyping, it is not suitable for real-world, modern-looking applications.
Undocumented Secrets of Matlab-Java Programming (CRC Press, ISBN 9781439869031) aims to correct this.
This book shows how using Java can significantly improve Matlab program appearance and functionality. This can be done easily and even without any prior Java knowledge.
Readers are led step-by-step from simple to complex customizations. Within the book’s 700 pages, thousands of code snippets, hundreds of screenshots and ~1500 online references are provided to enable the utilization of this book as both a sequential tutorial and as a random-access reference suited for immediate use.
This book demonstrates how:

The Matlab programming environment relies on Java for numerous tasks, including networking, data-processing algorithms and graphical user-interface (GUI)
We can use Matlab for easy access to external Java functionality, either third-party or user-created
Using Java, we can extensively customize the Matlab environment and application GUI, enabling the creation of visually appealing and usable applications

No prior Java knowledge is required. All code snippets and examples are self-contained and can generally be used as-is. Advanced Java concepts are sometimes used, but understanding them is not required to run the code. Java-savvy readers will find it easy to tailor code samples for their particular needs; for Java newcomers, an introduction to Java and numerous online references are provided.
More info about the book, including detailed Table-of-Contents, book structure and FAQ, can be found on the book’s webpage.

Get your book copy now!
Use promo code MZK07 for a 25% discount and free worldwide shipping.

Book Java

14 Responses

Aurélien November 17, 2011 at 12:24 Reply

Wowwwwwwww
Bravo Yair! Be sure that I will buy this book and promote it !!

Just by seeing the cover of your book , I cannot resist!

Encore une fois bravo!

Yair Altman November 17, 2011 at 12:29 Reply

@Aurélien – merci beaucoup 🙂

oro November 17, 2011 at 18:06 Reply

Moi aussi je suis interessé.

I don’t know anything about Java(I often have hard time understanding your examples on your site) but according on what it says, it should be OK, right ?

It seems to include many examples in the book but are they available in a CD ?

Yair Altman November 17, 2011 at 18:19 Reply

@Oro – No, you don’t need to know Java for using the book. Just like you don’t really need to know VB for using COM/ActiveX in Matlab. But perhaps after reading and using the book, you will end up knowing Java without noticing…

There is no CD, and I really don’t think that it is needed: I made a specific effort to reduce the code snippets to the bare minimum, for improved clarity. Most of the code snippets are relatively short, often only a few lines, sometimes up to several dozen lines.

The larger code segments are usually available for download using online reference links that I included in the text. If there is enough user demand then I may include some more online references for download of specific code segments, on the errata page that I will maintain here.

oro November 24, 2011 at 19:39

@Yair Altman Thank you for your reply, I may consider ordering your book 🙂
I hope I will be able to know more Java with it too !

Sam Roberts November 22, 2011 at 08:31 Reply

Yair, you’ve made my day. Ordering my copy now!
Brett Shoelson December 6, 2011 at 20:30 Reply

Hi Yair. I’m looking forward to getting my copy. Just don’t tell anyone! 🙂
Cheers,
Brett
Mike W December 12, 2011 at 11:55 Reply

Just got your book! I’ve been wishing you would write something like this for a while. Two questions…
(1) How much overlap is there between the book and the uitable/JTable report that you have available for sale (does the book include everything in the report)? and
(2) do you ever address swapping out an included *.jar on the standard java static path for an upgraded version (I want to use a newer version of Lucene than the one shipped with MATLAB)?

Yair Altman December 12, 2011 at 17:03 Reply

@Mike, the book covers almost the entire report, except a few additions/fixes that are newer in the report. Also, the report is softcopy PDF, so you can copy/paste/search. The report is also in full color. On the other hand, the book contains a lot of other stuff, so they complement one another.

Re the jar, I discuss jars in general but not the specific question you asked. If you read the book you should be able to handle this task.

Arno Nymus December 12, 2011 at 13:49 Reply

Ah, finally a possibility to support your work.
Donating from a company would have involved some serious paper work (if it’s even possible), but buying a book is easy.

Currently only pre-order in Germany, but it says “First Edition 12.Dec.”, so it should be available any moment.

Yair Altman December 16, 2011 at 06:59 Reply

@Arno – correct. The book started shipping in North America on Dec 5, and several hundred copies were shipped already, I’m told. I understand that copies in Europe are shipped from the UK branch, and this started a few days ago.

Steve C December 15, 2011 at 09:56 Reply

I just received the book yesterday and am looking forward to reading it. I tried to type in the URL for the “book’s website” found on page xviii and it comes back ‘Not Found’ with a search form. I suppose its too early for the errata list to be published but I was hoping that perhaps I could bookmark the link for later reference. Having access to some of the URL’s that the book refers to, or even some of the larger code examples from the text would also be great. Thanks for a great book!

Yair Altman December 16, 2011 at 06:38 Reply

@Steve – thanks for alerting me. I had made a stupid mistake in the redirection clause on the server that caused this. It’s now fixed (and links to this page). The errata part will be added in a few weeks, so stay tuned.

Héctor January 18, 2012 at 03:20 Reply

I saw the post today, and 5 minutes later… I have just buy mine on CRC Press Online… Great, well done.

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a = magic(3);
disp(sum(a))
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