From: kevin@dipl.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com (Kevin Anderson)
Subject: Matlab/PV wave interface
Keywords: Matlab PV wave interface
Reply-To: kevin@dipl.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 00:13:13 GMT




I have gotten many responses from people who are interested
in getting the code for the PV wave/matlab interface, so I 
thought I would update folks in this group on its status.
First, for those of you who didn't see the original posting,
here is a description of what the interface does and my 
current status as to trying to get it released (this is copied
from a note I just sent to somebody who inquired about the 
interface):

> Thanks for your interest in the interface.  The software I wrote is
> an interface between matlab and PV wave.  I believe IDL is something
> different than PV wave (I've never used IDL).  The simplest thing that
> the interface does is emulate matlab graphics functions in PV wave, which
> you can call from inside of matlab.  For example, to do a 2d plot using
> PV wave from matlab, you would call wplot instead of plot, or to do a
> mesh plot, you would call wmesh instead of mesh.  The advantage of this
> is that:
 
> 1) the graphs look a nicer
> 2) it is approximatly 1 order of magnitude faster
> 3) you can use pv wave's plotting paramters to create more
> complex plots (titles, tick marks, colors, etc)
> 4) you can get post script output of your plots from matlab (this feature
> alone is worth all the trouble it took to write the interface).
 
> The real advantage, though, to using the interface is that you can create
> your own custom graphics programs in PV wave and call them from matlab.
> For example, I just finished a program which takes a vector from matlab
> as input and diplays it as two plots in the same window.  The upper
> plot shows the whole signal, and the lower plot shows a sub section of
> the signal which is indicated by a boxed section in the upper signal.
> Using the mouse, the user can change the size/location of the box in the
> upper plot (thus changing the section of the signal displayed in the lower
> plot), or scroll the signal in the lower plot using the mouse buttons.
> When the PV wave function exits, it returns the sub-signal in the lower
> plot to matlab.

> I have been in contact with the project manager for PV wave CL at PVI,
> and he is very interested in it.  He is trying to work things out
> on their end, and I am trying to work things out on Lockheed's end.
> If everything goes right, then PVI will make the interface
> available to their customers.  Unfortunatley, cutting through the
> Lockheed beaurocracy is a major nightmare.  If I just released it,
> I could conceivably be fired.  The response I get whenever I tell
> somebody (in Lockheed) that I want to give the interface to PVI is,
> "Are you crazy?".  When I tell them that (in its current form) 
> it's not a commercial product (ie no money), then they say, "Why are
> you wasting my time".  I have gotten this response from several
> managers and it's very frustrating.  I'm still trying, though, and
> I think I will eventually be able to get it out of Lockheed (hopefully
> before Hell freezes over).

Kevin Anderson