MEXRS

A simple demonstration of making a Matlab mex function using Rust.

A mex function is nothing more than a specially named DLL that exports a special name: mexFunction. Rust's FFI makes this relatively straightforward.

Most mex functions will need to interact with Matlab's MX and MEX APIs to do anything useful. There's a build.rs for providing the link path to Matlab's libraries.

Wishlist

• automatically locate Matlab in build.rs
• automatically determine the mex extension. Perhaps use a call to Matlab's mexext command.

Details

Environment

The goal here was not to write something very general. These are the tools I used when putting this example together. It should be simple to adapt to other configurations.

• Rust 1.15 (stable)
• Matlab 2016b
• Windows 10 x64
• Visual Studio 2015

Building

From the hello directory:

cargo build
cp .\target\debug\helloworld.dll .\target\debug\helloworld.mexw64

Alternatively, see the build.ps1 script in the scripts folder.

Running

From the hello directory (after building):

matlab.exe -nodesktop -noFigureWindows -nosplash -logfile "log.txt" -r "cd target/debug;  helloworld; quit;"

You should get something like:

MATLAB is running in headless mode.  Figure windows will not be displayed.
 
To get started, type one of these: helpwin, helpdesk, or demo.
For product information, visit www.mathworks.com.
 
Hello World.