Why can the Open function not be used in compiled applications?

Hi, I am building a standalone application that should be compiled for PC, MAC and Linux. As I have a pdf with instructions and release notes, I planned to use open('ReleaseNotes.pdf'). However, after successfully compiling , I get the following warning in the command shell (running in Windows, I haven't tested the other two yet):

Warning: The Open function cannot be used in compiled applications.

1. Does somebody knows why this is happening? The funtcion open is not on the list of excluded functions ( https://de.mathworks.com/help/compiler/unsupported-functions.html ) and also not in mccExcludedFiles.log.

2. If there is no single function I can use for all three environments, is there something similar to winopen, which works in Windows, for Mac and Linux?

Thanks, Anna

Answer 1

[Jan]

Look at the file:

edit(fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox\matlab\general\private\openpdf.m'))

This is the method to open PDFs under Windows, Linux and MacOS. I'm not sure why open does not work in a compiled application. But you can try to create a clone of this method and adjust it to your needs.

[M. A. Hopcroft]

This answer helped me, thanks. I note that the inability to use "open" in compiled applications is a change from previous versions. It worked in R2015b, but fails in R2018b.