How can i create a program (or app) in Matlab?

Hi everyone! Now, i want to create a programming (or exactly is app) to learn English use Matlab. And interface of it is same that of a dictionary app (you can see figure below). I want to when i enter a keyword (for example, pier as the figure), app will return a picture that illustrates for the keyword and has a paragraph to define the keyword. (such as: pier is a component of.....) So, how can i do? Thank you so much!

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

This is not a question with any real answer, except that you learn to use the language, and then you learn to solve the problems such a task would pose. That does not mean that MATLAB would necessarily be a good tool for such a task.

To solve a large task like this, you would need to break it down into smaller problems. Thus, first learn how to build a searchable database that would contain images, and a list of keywords associated with each image. You would also need to build a dictionary for each keyword, this time with a definition for each such word.

You would best build the above tools separately, with no gui interface, just as a function call. This allows you to test out and fully debug the separate parts of the system.

Then you would need to spend some effort to build (or find) the necessary databases.

Finally, you design a gui interface, one that would be capable of calling the tools you have written. This means you need to learn to work with the necessary tools.

Again, break the problem down into manageable sub-problems. Learn to solve each sub-problem. In this case, you would need to learn about databases, about searches, about graphical user interfaces, and about how to package things into an app.

Is MATLAB the best tool for such a project? Probably not, since MATLAB is designed more for numerical work, nor does this mean that MATLAB would be inappropriate for the task. But the problem would be completely solvable in MATLAB. And in reality, the best tool for something like this is the language that you understand well enough to be able to solve the task at hand. That would surely be a different choice for different programmers.

[Le Dung]

First. Thank you for your comment. Yes, of course. Absolutely, I agree with you. Which I want to answer here is that you explained above. And, is matlab the best tool for this problem? Of course is not. But, I know only on matlab although I’m only a beginner.

[John D'Errico]

Writing a large tool like this will take a fair amount of effort, at least to do it well, with a large dictionary. It is also a good way to focus your efforts, forcing you to learn techniques that will solve the problems.

At issue for you will be that your first attempt will probably be a poor one. New users of a programming tool, especially new people to programming in general will not learn all the techniques that make for high quality code. So I would expect that a year from now, or several years, you would look back on what you wrote, and decide that it needed to be completely re-written to be truly a good tool.

[Le Dung]

Yes. Thank you so much. I know it is quite difficult to begineer in matlab. In addition, I’m not programmer. I don’t understand many things on matlab. But I will try to do it as a problem for me to learn Matlab use examples, I think so. And I hope receiving many helpings from you and others. You can explain to me each step (technique or concept) that I need to learn to solve my problem. Again, thank you so much