According to the MATLAB web page, "MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran."
A set of MATLAB files are created by the command
The following table shows the MATLAB files created by VFGEN when used in the MATLAB command. (Replace [name] with the name given in the vector field file.) N is the dimension of the system specified in the vector field file, t is time (a scalar), x is the N dimensional state vector, and p is the parameter vector.
| File | MATLAB Function | Description |
| [name]_vf.m | vf = [name]_vf(t,x,p) | The vector field function. This returns an Nx1 column vector. |
| [name]_jac.m | jac = [name]_jac(t,x,p) | The Jacobian function. This returns an NxN matrix. |
| [name]_jacp.m | jacp = [name]_jacp(t,x,p) | This function computes the Jacobian with respect to the parameters. This returns an NxP matrix, where P is the number of parameters. |
| [name]_hess.m | hess = [name]_hess(t,x,p) | The Hessian function. This returns an NxNxN matrix. |
| [name]_der3.m | der3 = [name]_der3(t,x,p) | The third derivatives of the vector field. This returns an NxNxNxN matrix. |
| [name]_evf.m | evf = [name]_evf(t,w,p) | A function that computes the extended vector field consisting of the original vector field and the variational equations. This returns a 2N dimensional column vector. (Note: After implementing this, I added the EVF command to VFGEN. The EVF command is probably a better alternative, because you can then use VFGEN to create the Jacobian of the extended vector field.) |
| [name]_[userfunc].m | r = [name]_[userfunc](t,x,p) | Each user function specified in the file results in its own MATLAB function. The return value is a scalar. |
| parstyle |
The method by which parameters are passed to the MATLAB
functions generated by VFGEN is controlled by the
parstyle option.
If the option parstyle=list is given, for example like this
$ vfgen matlab:parstyle=list vector_field_file.vf
then each parameter is listed explicitly
as an argument of the MATLAB functions.
That is, instead of [name]_vf(t,x,p), the
vector field function will be
[name]_vf(t,x,param1,param2,...,paramM).
Default: parstyle=vector |
| evf |
If the option evf=yes is given, the file named [name]_evf.m
is created.
Default: evf=no |
| func |
If the option func=yes is given, a MATLAB function is created for each
user-defined function.
Default: func=no |
| demo |
If the option demo=yes is given, the file [name]_demo.m
is created. This script will create a window that contains data fields
in which the parameters and initial conditions may be changed,
and a "Go" button that will generate
a plot of the solution.
Default: demo=no |
Here is a sample vector field file: pendulum.vf.
The files created by
