matfile documentation

[Ben Abbott]

On Monday, July 07, 2008, at 01:57PM, "Daniel Heiserer" <danielheiserer at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I wrote a translator from nastran-op2/op4 files to matlab-v4 binary files.
>As octave nowadays supports more sophisticated mat-files I like to switch to
>a higher matlab-binary-file version in order to support sparse matrices and
>other Datablocks in octave/matlab (e.g. cell structures).
>
>On the web I found some pdf describing version-5 of the matfile format.
>http://www.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de/static/hard/zrsinfo/matlab/R14/help/pdf_doc/matlab/matfile_format.pdf
>http://maxwell.me.gu.edu.au/spl/matlab-page/matfile_format.pdf
>
>However even if one of the pdfs states that it is version-7 (maybe matlab R7?? who knows) it describes also only version-5 of the
>mat-file. In octave I can see that -V5 does not exist at all. Only -V6 and -V7.
>I assume -V6 and -V7 can read the version 5. However I assume that the octave developers
>know the differences between the different mat-file formats as they wrote code for it. ;-)
>
>Can anybody send me a link to a documentation of version 6 and version 7 of the mat file format, so
>I can figure out what might be the best target format for the translator?
>
>Thanks and best regards, daniel heiserer

Its not what you asked for, but if your app is able to make use of code in a manner compatible with Octave's license, you can may be able to make use of it, or in the least get an idea for what the V6 and V7 formats might be.

If that might be a solution for you, follow the link below and start with load-save.cc.

http://velveeta.che.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/hgwebdir.cgi/octave/file/d56511a02884/src/

Ben