Matlab engine and disp() function

Question

I have a script that take some time to execute. I launch it in a C++ function, using Matlab Engine. To monitor the execution of the script, I wanted to add some disp('still alive') into it. However, it does not work, nothing is displayed into the matlab command window opened by engOpen (yes, I am sure the script is running, since I get output files at the execution end).

Any idea how I could get it to work ?

Beside, is it possible to get such heartbeats at script runtime, into the Windows command using engOutputBuffer ?

Thanks !

Answer 1

Use engOutputBuffer, engEvalString and printf to get output to console (to Windows command window, not MATLAB command window).

If you want to monitor progress of your script, you can open m-script file in your C code and execute it command-by-command with engEvalString. After each executed command printf buffer contents to console window. The main problem in this approach is how to isolate (parse) commands in opened m-script file, but if you expect certain kind of scripts this can be done.

The other way you can achieve monitoring of messages is to open a thread after engOutputBuffer which will check content of the buffer and execute printf in parallel to execution of the m-script started in a main thread.

Check example at mathworks (near bottom of the page) on how to output MATLAB messages to console (Windows command).