Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Matlab interface to USRP

[Jeff Brower]

Greg-

> On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 11:38 AM, Jeff Brower <address@hidden> wrote:
> [snip]
>>  I understand completely your viewpoint.  However, let me point out that one 
>> of your key objectives should be to
>>  increase popularity of GNU Radio software.  One way to do this is to 
>> encourage and support GNU Radio software
>> examples
>>  that interface with MATLAB in some way.
>>
>>  There is no denying that 1000s of developers are using MATLAB as a tool to 
>> develop radio and other RF applications.
>>  I'm active on MATLAB lists and forums, and besides commercial developers, I 
>> see literally 10s of student questions
>>  about RF projects every day. OFDM, MIMO, xxSK, you name it... Professors 
>> have assigned them to do it.
>>
>>  If you can draw those developers and students (and Profs) into the GNU 
>> Radio environment and introduce them to what
>>  you're doing, it will only serve to further your goals.
> [snip]
>
> Which is a role which the Octave embedding interface should be able to
> serve reasonably well, without bumping into the philosophical (and
> potentially legal) problems of linking matlab into GNU Radio.
>
> If octave didn't exist then perhaps the argument would be different
> ... But octave does exist and it is largely matlab compatible .. So to
> support embedding matlab in-lieu of octave wouldn't just be
> gratuitously promoting propritary software, it would be promoting
> propritary software to the exclusion of free software.

On days that I'm in philosophical mode, I completely agree.  But the reality is 
that MATLAB is far more widely used
than Octave.  MATLAB is at the core of the commercial and academic RF 
community, Octave is not.  If we are to increase
awareness and popularity of GNU Radio, there is no escaping MATLAB 
compatibility.

-Jeff