Availability of MATLAB
    
    >From time to time, requests for information on the availability
    of MATLAB appear in various newsgroups.  I am the author of
    MATLAB and will try to respond to these requests without
    sounding too commercial.
    
    There are two versions of MATLAB.  I wrote the first, which we now
    refer to as "classic MATLAB", over the period from 1977 to 1984,
    while I was on the faculty at the University of Mexico.  It is 
    an interactive matrix laboratory, written in Fortran, which uses
    some of the subroutines from LINPACK and EISPACK.  I distributed
    a few hundred copies of the source code, usually charging a
    $100-or-so service charge, and including a letter requesting
    that it not be redistributed.  I never used the term "public domain".
    
    The second version, written in C by Steve Bangert and John Little,
    is the basis for a family of products from The MathWorks, Inc.,
    a company which Bangert, Little and I founded in 1985.  These
    products are called PC-MATLAB, Mac-MATLAB, Pro-MATLAB, etc.
    They are MUCH more powerful than the classic version, particularly
    with respect to graphics and programability, and much faster
    in execution.
    
    I obviously recommend that anyone interested in using MATLAB
    acquire the MathWorks version appropriate for his or her machine.
    In addition to my commercial interest, I believe the MathWorks
    versions are preferable scientifically, educationally, and, in the
    long run, economically.  (I am not responsible for MathWorks
    pricing policy, but I think the educational discounts are very
    attractive.)
    
    There are still some good reasons for wanting the old Fortran
    source code.  For example, MathWorks may not yet have a product
    for your machine.  If this is the case, please let me know and
    we'll be glad to help you out.  (If all you want is the matrix
    computation subroutines, get LINPACK and EISPACK instead.
    We do not distribute LINPACK and EISPACK in C.)
    
    I would appreciate it if anybody who is redistributing my
    original code would forward requests to me instead.
    
    Thanks to all those who have helped make MATLAB successful.
    But, I haven't used my own version for almost 5 years.  I hope
    that everybody else will join me in using the modern ones.
    
       -- Cleve Moler
          moler@na-net.stanford.edu
    
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