The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory. MATLAB was originally written to provide easy access to matrix software developed by the LINPACK and EISPACK projects, which together represent the state of the art in software for matrix computation. MATLAB converts user commands (including M-files) into C or C++ codes before calling other program modules (subroutines). Today MATLAB has been developed to cover many application areas. You may search the internet with the key word MATLAB to see some evidence. To learn more about the product developers, check the web page

• http://www.mathworks.com/

If you hope to find out more of, or wish to use directly, the LAPACK and EISPACK programs, check the following

• http://www.netlib.org/lapack/

For users who would like a gentle and easy introduction to MATLAB, try the following

• http://www.ius.cs.cmu.edu/help/Math/vascJielp-matlab.html

• http://www.unm.edu/cirt/info/software/apps/matlab.html

For novice users who prefer short guides to MATLAB with concrete and simple examples, try

• http://www.liv.ac.uk/CSD/acukJitml/486.dir/486.html

• http://www-math.cc.utexas.edu/math/Matlab/Matlab.html

• http://www.indiana.edu/∼statmath/math/matlab/index.html

Advanced users of MATLAB may check the following pages for more comprehensive guides to MATLAB

• http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/RRZ/software/Matlab/

• http://www.engin.umich.edu/group/ctm/

• ftp://ftp.math.ufl.edu/pub/matlab/

Even more sophisticated examples may be available on the internet; e.g. try the following for more M-files

• ftp://ftp.cc.tut.fi/pub/math/piche/numanal/

• http://www.ma.man.ac.uk/∼higham/testmat.html

• http://www.tc.cornell.edu/∼anne/projects/MM.html

• http://users.comlab.ox.ac.uk/nick.trefethen/multimatlab.html

• ftp://ftp.mathworks.com/pub/mathworks/toolbox/matlab/sparfun/

The following sites contain technical information on MATLAB and FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages

• http://www.mathworks.com/

• http://www-europe.mathworks.com/

• http://www.math.ufl.edu/help/matlab-faq.html