Book excerpt: Highlighting the new aspects of MATLAB 7.10 and expanding on many existing features, this eighth edition continues to offer a hands-on, step-by-step introduction to using the powerful tools of MATLAB. It includes a new chapter on object-oriented programming, a new discussion of the MATLAB File Exchange window, major changes to the MATLAB Editor, and an explanation of more powerful Help tools. It also presents a synopsis of the most frequently used functions, operators, and special characters-providing quick and easy access to frequently used information. M-files and MEX-files for large examples are available at www.crcpress.com