Why is Matlab Coder not available in the home version of a license?

As I am sure is true of many other home enthusiasts, we enjoy creating innovative and interesting creations at home. Some of those creations are microprocessor controlled. I am happy that Matlab has introduced the Home version of their license. Having used Matlab in the past at work I can attest it is one of the most amazing tools out there and the code produced by Matlab Coder and the Embedded Coder are insanely helpful. I am however quite saddened that Matlab Coder, Embedded Coder, and HDL Coder are not available for the home license. Since pushing an application to hardware like the Raspberry Pi or Arduino only works until the power is removed, anything we do isn't something we can use. Considering the terms of the home license restricts its use for commercial or student use, how does the removal of this selection help? I imagine showing folks at home the power of these tools would only serve to spur more commercial sales. Can we re-evaluate this decision please?

[Martin Beveridge]

Hello, I'd appreciate help, I'm new to the Matlab platform and assessing it for learning audio applications for Arduino and MCU's, I'm disappointed if the Matlab and Simulink C/C++ coder can not be used with the home version , I've just spent nearly £300 UK GBP on Matlab and added toolboxes and quite perplexed if I can't re-use any output code to work on my Arduino or embedded applications ?? I hope this restriction is lifted as it is not much use at the individual expense level if I can't use my ideas outside the Matlab GUI. Please can this be looked at in order to add the coding functionality as an option for home version, It's a real restriction for home experimenters, and it was not made clear upfront. It is a bid misleading, as when you look at the coding web page section for pricing on this functionality it just leads you to the main software including a tab link for the home version. Apologies if this is posted in the wrong section , I'm adding to the prior question as I'm just getting to know the software and I'm already having the same functionality issue which will be a blocker to developing my ideas for my guitar audio effects. Thank You

[Walter Roberson]

Simulink can generate for Arduino.

[Jan]

@Martin Beveridge: Please do not append a new question in the section for comments of another question. Open your own thread instead. Thanks.

[Thomas Trostel]

seems like his text messaged my original issue rather than asking a new question

[Walter Roberson]

As of R2018b MATLAB can generate for arduino (but not for raspberry pi)

[Ryan Livingston]

I'd add a bit of nuance to Walter's reply. MATLAB Coder and Simulink Coder can generate C or C++ for a wide variety of hardware by specifying custom hardware. The generated code could be manually moved to a Raspberry Pi or similar device and compiled there. In R2018b this workflow could be used to generate code for a Raspberry Pi or most other generic hardware.

Expanded support for hardware like Arduino and similar comes in a nicely packaged support package that provides many hooks into the code generation process like calling custom compilers automatically, downloading code, performing verification with SIL and PIL, etc.

[Walter Roberson]

Note: I had it backwards, it is Raspberry Pi that was supported, not Arduino.

Also I was mislead by the fact that the announcement of it is in the MATLAB release notes, rather than the MATLAB Coder release notes. And since it requires MATLAB Coder and MATLAB Coder cannot be obtained for Home license, this is not usable on Home licenses :(

Answer 1

[Carey Bunks]

Hi,

I concur with the view of the original poster of this question. As a hobbyist my son and I are working on projects with a Raspberry Pi, and were hoping to use Matlab for some of the development. I too spent £300 for a home license for Matlab and an assortment of toolboxes.

May I point out that in the UK, there has been significant growth in interest in micro controllers such as the Pi, Arduino, Micro Bit, and so on. There are clubs for kids and adults for teaching and sharing of projects. Being able to produce code optimized for memory and computational efficiency seems like a functionality that is no longer just in the projessional domain.

Given democratization of technology, and the speed at which computing is evolving, perhaps the Mathworks could give some consideration to extending their coding toolboxes to home license users?

Regards,

Carey

Answer 2

[Andreas Goser]

Hello Thomas, this forum's purpose is intended for technical topics. I will send you an email to address your question.

[Joseba Luza]

Dear All,

I encounter the very same project. Is there anywhere we could get any information about this?

A million thanks, Joe

[Andreas Goser]

If you send me an email with your project description, I will forward to the product manager, but I would like to set your expectations about a change low.

[Derek Eccles]

Hi, I am new to both Simulink and MPLAB IDE. I have MATLAB R2016a. I am trying to build a simple model in Simulink consisting of a waveform generator, scope and microchip adc – see simulinkmodel.png. However I cannot see how to attach the signal genny to the adc. I don’t think I have downloaded all of the relevant files from microchip – see simulinkpage.png, this is a screenshot of my blockset directory, it seems to be missing some directories when compared to below. The mplabpage is a screenshot taken from : http://www.microchip.com/webinars.microchip.com/webinardetails.aspx?ddocname=en542925 This seems to contain files in Simulink directory such as Embedded target for microchip dsPIC, Real Time Workshop and Real Time Workshop Embedded Coder My email address is [e-mail]. I am willing to purchase a copy of simulink coder etc.

Answer 3

[Steph Frey]

Simple answer: Coder is their bread and butter for industry.

[Walter Roberson]

That still does not explain why it is not available for Home license.

My speculation would be that Mathworks has a lot of concern that someone with a Home license might use Coder and then distribute the resulting files. However, in such a situation they could place license restrictions against redistribution, I would think.

Answer 4

[Brian Tremaine]

One great advanatge of the Home license is that it is affordable for an individual to buy and learn the software. How can you stay up to date in your skills if you can't afford the software to learn and your company is not interested in buying a license for employees to learn? It is a sad situation. This locks us out of learning HIL, SIL and Digital Twins. This needs to be addressed for the continuing education of Engineers.

[Walter Roberson]

If you are buying a MATLAB license to learn / practice MATLAB for use in your job, then that is not Hobbyist / Personal Project use, and MATLAB Home would not be the appropriate license.

In Canada, buying software to learn in order to better employment would potentially be an allowable business expense -- but only if you could demonstrate that doing so lead to increased income within a "reasonable" number of years ("reasonable" is typically interpreted as needing to make a "profit" by the end of the third year; profit could potentially include a promotion or raise that could be shown to have been dependent on having learned the software.)

Answer 5

[Carey Bunks]

I've given up on Matlab, and am now working exclusively in Python, and the good news is that there are now reasonably effective Python tools for automatic code generation (including HDLs -- see https://docs.myhdl.org/en/stable/manual/intro.html).

Python, a free and open source software package, has become the tool of choice across a wide range of engineering disciplines. Is there a Matlab toolbox you like? There is an equivalent in Python... and much, much more than what the Mathworks, a single company, can provide. Python has great graphics with a Matlab-like syntax (matplotlib), and a rich ecology of supporting tools. Visual Studio Code is a fantastic IDE with great debugging tools, and Jupyter notebooks are a wonderful way of interactively running and presenting Python code with integration of video, audio, graphics, and markdown text.

The only tool that Matlab has that might not have a viable alternative in Python is Simulink (although there are some Pythonic attempts), their graphic canvas for schematizing processing. Although Simulink is a cute module that can have pedagogic value, it is not a serious professional tool because it is unwieldy when used to build complex systems. Debugging, updating, and maintaining Simulink models is impracticable in the same way that circuit design on a canvas interface quickly becomes unweildy.

We are in an ever evolving world, and the democratization of coding tools continues to accelerate. Mathworks, I'm guessing that because of this you've seen significant drops in your subscription base over the past 5 years. My advice is you'll need to find a less rigid commercial model if you are to survive. The current licensing model costing thousands of dollars seems fated to be replaced by the free and open source model. When one evaluates the acceleration of free professional quality tools, it seems wise to start seriously thinking about how the company can transition to a new sustainable model.

Click subscribe to read more about my views on technology strategy! :-)

[Walter Roberson]

The current licensing model costing thousands of dollars seems fated to be replaced by the free and open source model.

Sadly, the real-world implication of that is that the software world has become increasing dependent on exploiting free contributions from programmers in developing countries who feel that their only hope in obtaining paying work is to contribute a bunch to FOSS projects and hope that someone happens to notice them in particular and offer them work. Together, of course, with contributions from some first-world developers who are subsidizing their FOSS contributions with income from other sources.

There was a report a few weeks ago about a first-world employee who was substantially responsible for a strong earnings increase for their company, asked for a fairly modest pay raise, and their boss instead laid them off and hired a team of 5 from a developing country, because that was "less expensive" than giving a raise to a hard-working valuable first-world employee. (This was not a FOSS situation, but it speaks to the mindset of companies.)

It is difficult for any organization to fight against an economy based upon exploitation.

[Carey Bunks]

Seems like this thread has veered into a political rant similar to Tucker Carlson's replacement theories about people in third world countries coming to get us. There's even an unsubstantiated, unreferenced anecdote starting with "There was a report a few weeks ago...". Sure.

That said, your exploitation theory needs a bit more fleshing out before it can be validated as having any merit. For example, how does it stand up to competing theories? My personal favorite: students want to develop their portfolios of code on GitHub so they can demonstrate to potential employers that their work is of good quality, and that they can collaborate with others. Then there is the theory that some people want to make a difference in the world. I could mention Richard Stallman, or Larry Wall, or Linus Torvalds, or Guido van Rossum...

I wonder whose theories are a better match for reality?