Is there a MATLAB package manager?

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James Bland 2021-5-25

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评论： Jan Kappen 2024-11-3，17:02

I cannot find any MathWorks endorsed package managers. The user-built solutions I have found do not seem to be popular (PackMan, DepMat, mpm) or regularly maintained. What do people recommend? Is there a reason for the lack of package manager in comparison to pip (python), npm (JavaScript)? How does MathWorks recommend I organise seperate but interdependent code?

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Matt Cooper 2022-9-30

mpm looks promising but here is how to roll your own: install matlab source code (file exchange, github, etc) into a "toolboxes" folder, and manage projects in a "projects" folder. Use setenv() to define these paths in startup.m. Write a function that uses getenv() and dir() to list all subdirectories in these folders and (optionally) save it as a registry. Write a function called activate.m that accepts as input the name of a toolbox or project, reads the registry or uses dir() on the fly, addpath() to 'activate' the toolbox or (for a project) cd into it. Write a function called deactivate.m that does the opposite. Pro tip: put a functionSignatures.json file with activate.m and deactivate.m and populate the 'choices={}' field with the toolbox and project names. Now you have autocomplete, simply type activate <toolboxname> and viola. You can add utilities that integrate with remote source control, like mpm provides, but activate/deactivate will solve 99% of your daily need to navigate from project to project with a clean namespace and a centralized registry of available source code.

James Bland 2022-10-25

hi Matt,

Thanks for your clear answer, although i still feel that this is code i shouldnt have to reinvent myself

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Answer 1

Sean de Wolski 2021-6-10

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Right now there is no package manager like the ones you listed in that everything in MATLAB is tied to the path. Using MATLAB Add-ons with the File Exchange and MATLAB Projects with reference projects are the two best current solutions. You can minimize namespace collisions with namespace packages in MATLAB (note the terminology here does not imply package like in other languages).

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James Bland 2021-6-22

hi sean,

thanks for your answer. If you could point me to any good examples of matlab workflows/ code organisation that would be appreciated!

Stephen 2022-1-19

@James Bland there is no such thing. Hope this helps

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Answer 2

Rob Campbell 2023-5-26

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The fact that this still does not exist is not only real pain but it's arguably holding back the whole MATLAB ecosystem. The lack of a package manager disourages teams of people from building interconnected projects and so makes MATLAB a less attractive platform for serious development.

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Ashley Trowell 2023-10-26

You are correct. I think the root The problem is that packages themselves are treated as second class within the Matlab environment. The basic practice of adding everything to the path is just asking for namespace collisions. You'll notice the exist function doesn't even support telling you if a package exists on the path. And if you have a complex project and an existing package, and you need to embed that in a different package, you are in for a lot of manual modification which no other programming language requires of you. The result is best practices in avoiding namespace collisions are completely discouraged in matlab. That makes the job of a package manager much more difficult.

A key problem is that files are completely unaware of what namespace they exist in, so you have to fully describe the entire namespace path to call functions that are in the same namespace. This causes the requirement to rewrite every function call when you move code to a new namespace. There's no relative namespace respect.

This is a rather intolerable situation. A utility which might make this less egregious would be a way to automatically refactor code to sit in a new namespace.

Jan Kappen 2024-10-29，17:46

There is a package manager now, see Organize and Distribute Code Using MATLAB Package Manager - MATLAB & Simulink

Ashley Trowell 2024-11-1，3:51

在 MATLAB Online 中打开

@Rob Campbell 1 year late, but... You asked if imports solve the namespace issues.

I think Walter's example shows the main reason imports are weak. I can think of two otheres.

A) Walter's example, changing package names and organization is tedious and error prone. Put another way, there are changes which are conceptually simple, eg. nest a package in another package, which may take hours to implement and bug test, because of all the different kinds of labels which may need to be modified, and the fact that an interpreted language won't error until you've followed every path. In a large project, you are almost guaranteed to introduce bugs performing an entirely deterministic operation. (Folks have argued that this is acceptable to prevent people from reorganizing too frequently. No.)

B) Goto Function Definition breaks (At least in previous versions, not sure about 2024.)

Imports broke the functionality of right clicking on a function and saying Go to Definition. You had to decide between the two. I feel that "Goto definition" is critical for languages which are weakly typed and have first class functions. My compromise was to create anonymous functions in a function where I needed an import, because that doesn't break "Goto definition". So inside my function, instead of saying

import signal_tools.visuals.plot_spectrum

I would instead say

plot_spectrum = @signal_tools_visuals.plot_spectrum;

C) Small functions get bloated with imports

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Answer 3

Jan Kappen 2024-10-29，17:46

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There's a package manager now, see Organize and Distribute Code Using MATLAB Package Manager - MATLAB & Simulink

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Ashley Trowell 2024-10-31，18:36

Jan,

Very good news. Thank you for taking the time to share. This looks like an improvement to one of MATLAB's biggest weakness. Give that team a bonus.

Proverbs 25:25 "Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land."

Jan Kappen 2024-11-3，17:02

@Ashley Trowell I fully agree. And there are livescripts in plain text, i.e. text format now - also an awesome step into the right direction.

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Is there a MATLAB package manager?

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