Algorithm development video

Posted by Doug Hull, June 27, 2007

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Here at the MathWorks, one of our Core Values is Continuous Improvement. Part of that is about being process oriented- “Clock building is better than time telling.”

Following that Core Value to talk about algorithm development, it takes more than just looking at finished algorithms (time telling), you need to look at the process of algorithm development (clock building). In that spirit, I wanted to present a new video where I spend fifteen minutes in MATLAB developing an algorithm. You will see every line of code as it is written (and rewritten). Along the way, you will see:

Short description of the algorithm to develop
Creation and exploration of a test case
Initial creation and reworking of the variable naming convention to avoid using “magic numbers”
Intermediate testing of algorithm
Keeping code clean and readable
Use of debugger to understand error messages
Use of visualization techniques to understand output
Effective use of MATLAB desktop tools

While the topic of the movie is an interesting little algorithm about fractals, the video is more about the process of programming in MATLAB.