Is it possible to get older versions of Matlab

I apologize if this is the wrong place but I couldn't find a specific feedback section. This is aimed at the Matlab developers by way of feedback on their latest upgrade. I would like to say that categorically this is the worst upgrade I have ever seen. More and more program upgrades are becoming less and less worthwhile, adding zero functionality in favour of gimmicky UI features that are entirely useless or just plain annoying. Do you not beta test these useless features on people that actually use this program for scientific purposes?

Unfortunately I am at a university and am pretty much forced into using the latest and "greatest" so for me I will probably have to abandon the use of Matlab. Would it be possible to purchase a stand alone version of Matlab from say 5 years ago where I don't have to deal with any BS upgrades? A version that gets the job done quickly without the flashy useless crap piled on over the last 5 years?

Answer 1

[Andreas Goser]

Dear Murray, I will contact you directly to see whether I can help you to use the release you prefer. In general, your university should offer that. Not only as of the type of feedback you gave, but often enough, there are valid compatibilty considerations for peolple working together on one project.

Answer 2

[Andreas Goser]

For the product Feedback: Of course it it legitimate to give emotional Feedback, but for the developers, this is not very actionable. And yes, all Releases are tested before they get released, e.g. through the pre-release a couple of months before the final release. Also MathWorks-internal.

I can only speculate:

If you et crashes or can't work with the products: Search MATLAB Answers and/or contact Technical Support

If you don't like a feature or miss features: Be specific with your reports.

Answer 3

[Murray Douglas]

OK fair comment but it is a fair call to say that the number of issues are overwhelming to put on one statement. If I was to comment on each individual feature I took issue with I would be here until the next update. Someone highlighted the annoying feature of the pop-up window when going back through history (cant imagine anyone likes this feature). That can be fixed by going (wading) through the preferences. Let me highlight a similar thing...

I write an M-file and want to save it. Previously I would go to the menu an select save (or ctrl-s and job pretty much done after prompting me for save name. Now the menu is gone and it has been replaced by a little triangle thing in the corner of the editor window - ok fine. Now my ONLY options are Save and Show Code analyzer report or Save and Show Dependency report - whatever they are. So I select the first and I get a pop-up window with a report that gives pretty much the same information as the the little orange dashes in the editor window that appear as I write the code. Let me (try) to turn off this pointless feature (the pop-up window - not the dashes - just to be sure you know what is useful and what isn't) ...

I go to preferences - lets aim for Code analyzer report. No option to "shut this useless feature off" menu item is apparent. But there is a menu of options almost all of which are selected by default - I haven't counted them but by scrolling I estimate approximately 400 of them. Do I really need to point out to the developers that this kind of thing is unacceptable from a user point of view?

But lets continue...

Lets try Editor/Debugger - no - no help there. Hmmm what to do.

Well I am there lets try to figure out the default layout for the program. I don't particularly care to have Workspace and Current folder taking up most of the program window since they only contain names of variables/files. Why the developers felt these needed to be, as a default, the most important windows is beyond me. Hmmmm - it appears this is not under preferences for any of these items. Of course not - preferences is already overwhelmed with e.g. 400 default settings for a code analyzer that serves no functional purpose. So what to do. Lets check the palettes at the top to deal with this - there is only 6 tabs worth and I have all day.

Maybe this would work better/faster if you named some features that you actually thought were worthwhile...

[Andreas Goser]

Thank You for taking the time to write down your observations. I have no immedeate answer for you. I will make sure a MathWorks support engineer assesses them and comes back to you by email.