Help converting MATLAB to Scilab code

[DiracPool]

Hello, I am having difficulty converting some MATLAB code to Scilab code. Specifically, the problem is with graphing the results of a spiking neuron program. Herer is the program and the article that explains it:

https://www.izhikevich.org/publications/spikes.pdf

The problem I am having is around line 14:

firings=[firings; t+0*fired,fired];

This does not establish a matrix that can be plotted as executed in the last line of the program:

plot(firings(:,1),firings(:,2),'.');

This works in MATLAB but not in Scilab and I haven't found a fix. Please help!

 

[hutchphd]

Line 14 of what?

 

[DiracPool]

Line 14 of what?

Of the MATLAB code on page 1571 the article: https://www.izhikevich.org/publications/spikes.pdf

The lines aren't numbered, but it's about 14 lines down... firings=[firings; t+0*fired,fired];

 

[Steve4Physics]

Hi @DiracPool .A few thoughts if you are still struggling with this…

My knowledge of MATLAB is very (and I mean very) limited. And my knowledge of Scilab is significantly less!

To run the MATLAB program under Scilab, changes are needed. But you didn’t say what changes you’ve made. For example, the function randn(), is used in MATLAB, but not Scilab; the function find() in MATLAB may work slightly differently to find() in Scilab.

Have you already translated the MATLAB code to Scilab? If not, look at the ‘Application' drop-down menu at the top of the Scilab Console window. The menu contains ‘Matlab to Scilab Translator’. Never used it myself but it might do the job.

For interest I copied/pasted the program in the link and ran it on (a free online version of) MATLAB. It didn’t work. After a bit of puzzling I changed
plot(firings(:,1),firings(:,2), ‘.’)
to
plot(firings(:,1),firings(:,2), “.”).
and got a graph - but the graph didn’t look like Figure 3!

I also skimmed through the paper out of interest. The text says $u$ and $v$ are dimensionless variables. But equation 3 says $v \ge 30mV$ which means $v$ would have dimensions (it is a voltage). And $u$ would then have to have units of mV/s to make equation 1 homogeneous. But then $u$ is treated as a voltage later on.

However, mustn’t be picky!

Edit - typo'.

 

[DiracPool]

Hi @DiracPool .A few thoughts if you are still struggling with this…

My knowledge of MATLAB is very (and I mean very) limited. And my knowledge of Scilab is significantly less!

To run the MATLAB program under Scilab, changes are needed. But you didn’t say what changes you’ve made. For example, the function randn(), is used in MATLAB, but not Scilab; the function find() in MATLAB may work slightly differently to find() in Scilab.

Have you already translated the MATLAB code to Scilab? If not, look at the ‘Application' drop-down menu at the top of the Scilab Console window. The menu contains ‘Matlab to Scilab Translator’. Never used it myself but it might do the job.

For interest I copied/pasted the program in the link and ran it on (a free online version of) MATLAB. It didn’t work. After a bit of puzzling I changed
plot(firings(:,1),firings(:,2), ‘.’)
to
plot(firings(:,1),firings(:,2), “.”).
and got a graph - but the graph didn’t look like Figure 3!

I also skimmed through the paper out of interest. The text says $u$ and $v$ are dimensionless variables. But equation 3 says $v \ge 30mV$ which means $v$ would have dimensions (it is a voltage). And $u$ would then have to have units of mV/s to make equation 1 homogeneous. But then $u$ is treated as a voltage later on.

However, mustn’t be picky!

Edit - typo'.

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply and the leads. The translation/converter tool in Scilab did not seem to work, it didn't even produce a file that could even be run. What really helped was your mention of the free online MATLAB. That's pretty cool. At 20 hours a month, that might be all I need for that project. Plus, I'm actually downloading the free "Octave" alternative right now since I heard that the syntax is almost identical to MATLAB. So we will see if that does the trick.

By the way, I was able to get the program to run correctly on the Free online MATLAB. What worked for me was to delete all the comments (i.e. what comes after "//"). Try it and see if it works for you. It's a cool program to fool around with if you're into neuroscience.

11:33pm One final edit, haha. I just finished installing Octave and ran the program. Works perfectly...Success! Not even a 20 hour limit. Thanks again!