TOP 10 REASONS WHY YOUR !@#$%^&

MATLAB PROGRAM ISN'T WORKING

IN ORDER OF LIKELIHOOD OF THIS BEING THE PROBLEM:

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1. Your copy of Matlab doesn't include the right "toolboxes":
   • "Undefined function or variable..." likely means this.
   • EECS 206 labs require the "Signal Processing Toolbox" and
     "Image Processing Toolbox." Matlab in CAEN labs have these.
   • But Central Campus copies of Matlab likely don't have these.

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2. The default number of points used in plot is too small.
   • The Matlab default for the plot command is to use 100 points.
     This is too small to pick up sharp peaks or dips properly.
   • This happened to me so many times that I deliberately left
     a couple in my lecture notes, to make the point in lecture.

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3. You omitted the "." in X.*Y, so you're computing X*Y.
   • Try T=linspace(0,1,1000);plot(sin(1./T)) without the . in ./
   • This function has a lot of weird properties; mathematicians love it!

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4. You think X is a column vector, when it's actually a row vector.
   • EX: R=roots([1 -3 2]) produces a column vector R=[1 2]'
   • zplane(R) will plot R directly, not the roots of the polynomial R.
   • You can check this using size(R) to see what size you've got.

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5. You used T=0:0.01:1 instead of T=linspace(0,1,100).
   • Don't see the difference? Try it. The first generates 101 values of T.
   • The second does NOT generate successive values of T separated by 0.01.

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6. You made a typing mistake somewhere in your program.
   • You mistyped x for X, or vice-versa (Matlab is case-sensitive).
   • You simply mistyped a weird variable name, like dft_chop.

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7. You forgot to save your modified .m file before rerunning Matlab.
   • Or you saved it in the wrong directory (you'd be surprised how often).
   • Or you forgot to use clear at the beginning to erase previous values.

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8. Your program conditioning or loop structure is messed up somehow.
   • Something is messing up your for-end;if-else-break-end;while-end.
   • Or you may have forgotten that % begins a comment statement in Matlab.

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9. You forgot the most basic rule of all of computer programming:
   • A computer will always do exactly what you tell it to do.
   • But that may not be what you had in mind!

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