| Symbolic Math Toolbox |
  |
Getting Help
There are two ways to find information on using Symbolic Math Toolbox functions. One, of course, is to read this manual! The other is to use MATLAB's command line help system. Generally, you can obtain help on MATLAB functions simply by typing
help function
where function is the name of the MATLAB function for which you need help. This is not sufficient, however, for some Symbolic Math Toolbox functions. The reason? The Symbolic Math Toolbox "overloads" many of MATLAB's numeric functions. That is, it provides symbolic-specific implementations of the functions, using the same function name. To obtain help for the symbolic version of an overloaded function, type
help sym/function
where function is the overloaded function's name. For example, to obtain help on the symbolic version of the overloaded function, diff, type
help sym/diff
To obtain information on the numeric version, simply type
help diff
How can you tell whether a function is overloaded? The help for the numeric version tells you so. For example, the help for the diff function contains the section
Overloaded methods
help char/diff.m
help sym/diff.m
This tells you that there are two other diff commands that operate on expressions of class char and class sym, respectively. See the next section for information on class sym. See the MATLAB topic Programming and Data Types for more information on overloaded commands.
You can use the mhelp command to obtain help on Maple commands. For example, to obtain help on the Maple diff command, type mhelp diff. This returns the help page for the Maple diff function. For more information on the mhelp command, type help mhelp or read the section Using Maple Functions in this Tutorial.
| | Using the Symbolic Math Toolbox | | Getting Started | |