PEZ

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PeZ: A Pole-Zero Editor for Matlab Craig Ulmer / Grimace@ee.gatech.edu

Introduction

PeZ is a decently featured Pole-Zero Editor for Matlab designed to help users graphically examine the complex z-plane. While many other people have written Pole-Zero editors over the years, PeZ differs in that it is written entirely in Matlab allowing for wide portability and expansion. The interpretted nature of Matlab code allows practically any machine with a recent port of Matlab the ability to run PeZ. The open testbed nature of Matlab also allows users the ability to freely access and use the data manipulated with PeZ. This ability to prod and connect PeZ to other Matlab applications makes PeZ a decent tool for students to explore the characteristics of the Z-Plane.

New Features for PeZ v3.1

MATLAB v4.2 and 5.1 Compatibility: Due to the number of changes that Mathworks had to make in the GUI controls for the recent v5 release, a lot of the GUI code had to be reworked to be functional with the new system.
UNIX, MAC, and PC Recognition: While Matlab code is in theory the same for all machines, GUI code has a tendency to be inconsistent between platforms. I've made adjustments to the code to compensate for some of these problems.
Real-Time Plots: A great deal of work was put into speeding up the plots so that they can occur in a real-time fashion.
Cosmetic & Bug Fixes: Updated several minor problems and changed labels for easier use.
Documentation: Previous documentation was from several releases ago

Compatibility Issues

Since Matlab is an interpreted language for multiple machines, there are always implementation variances based on the system. We have tested Pez under a number of configurations, but check the Compatibility Issues page for more specific info. The page also lists some "what to do if it doesn't work" ideas.

The Legal Junk

Copyright 1997, Craig Ulmer. All rights reserved.
Permission to use and copy this software and its documentation for any non-warmongering purpose, is hereby granted under the following conditions:

You cannot use it to blow up people. Blowing up stuff that does not contain people is of course granted.
Craig Ulmer is not responsible for anything you do. Craig Ulmer is barely responsible for Craig Ulmer!
You may not redistribute the software or documentation without my writtent consent.
If used in a university or company, you must send me a shirt or sweatshirt with your university name or company logo on it.

Send To:
Craig Ulmer
327667 Georgia Tech Station
Atlanta, GA 30332-1175

Violation of any of these conditions will result in strict legal action from big-shot soul-less lawyers who will "sue your pants off". These are our demands. Have some pride in your company/school for a change, eh?

Credit:

This version of PeZ had particular help from a daring pair at Rose-Hulman. They took on the difficult task of sorting through my spagetti code in order to speed up the plots for a better real-time appearance. The result impressed me, and I took their work and applied it with my own twists for Pez to work on different platforms. Special thanks go to these guys:

Brad North : The student that came up with a PC optimized version and figured out the neat redraw tricks. I originally gave up on the tricks he did because they were difficult to work with. Brad trodded through and got it all to work! Sorry for having you look at such bad code!
Dr. Yoder : The professor at Rose-Hulman that pushed on everything and always has a mind to try something new. Thanks!

Thanks:

I couldn't have worked on Pez without the support of a lot of people. A special thanks must go to the following:

Dr. Schafer -- for getting me started on the Matlab projects, explaining the difficult stuff patiently, teaching me how to spell "Zero", and being the first prof to learn my name.
Dr. McClellan -- for looking pushing me on getting it done, improving my code, giving me the latest gossip on Matlab, and being a great prof in general.
Dr. Jeff Schodorf -- for all the great work on the CD and being a TA to look up to. Good luck with the new job!
Amer Abufadel, Darrell Stogner, Vivek Garg, and Phviu Nguyen -- for all the late night breaks, painful "Wouldn't it be neat if"s, and the continuous stream of "why the hell are you still working on that??Are you getting any money out of this?"
The EE2200 students -- for keeping asking WHY?!?
And most importanly, Amy, for everything goofy.

"There was a place, and the name of the place escapes me. I can't remember, it irritates me. Could be I can't remember, could be I choose to not, let's move along the song, and try to find a plot..There was a girl, and I don't know her name either, she gave me love and I said I'd never leave her, and if I did--I'd come back someday and find her, maybe I will...I should write down a reminder...one day, one day who knows, someday..someday I suppose.."

-The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

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