Tutorials:

Documentation and tutorials for FreeMat are not as common as other freeware tools. Your primary source of information for developing your skills will be your fellow students and discussions that we have in lab. Another important source of input will come from comments embedded in the FreeMat files that you will work from. Learn to take the time to make sense of both the FreeMat code and the comments. If you feel like more clarification is needed please communicate with me and I will do what I can.

The Manual:

There is a printed copy of the FreeMat manual in the lab in the East wall cabinets. Use it freely but don't take it out of the lab since it is a shared resource. I have found it useful many times although sometimes more limited than I wanted.

Google Search:

The standard return from a google search (put "freemat" in quotes will help) will take you to http://freemat.sourceforge.net/help/functions_whatever.html . Once you've been here a few times you'll be pretty frustrated since it is difficult to interpret on many levels. Regardless of the frustration you need to at least understand what this resource looks like since it may be your last resort. I routinely find it useful in spite of the challenge

It is often helpful to google for how to accomplish some task in MatLab for which there are more developed resources. This will suggest possible functions or tools that you can then google to find out what they look like in FreeMat. This has been a successful strategy for me on several occasions.

Getting Started:

This is a MatLab Tutorial so that means that if something doesn't work it may be because the specific command doesn't exist in FreeMat. Regardless, this will be a useful reference tool for us on many levels.

Another resource I have found very useful over the years is the work of Ross L. Spencer and Michael Ware at BYU who have developed a wonderful computational physics course. The materials for that course include a wonderful (downloadable) MatLab Tutorial and sample files of various kinds. All of these resources are accessed from the Physics 330 Materials web page.