Side effects
Scientific programming in MATLAB using the new OOP language features of the 2008a release has a number of secondary side effects:

• The division between scientist and software architect become blurred as the algorithm and final expression in software are nearly identical.

• Object-oriented approaches can be explored without abandoning the rich functional environment of MATLAB.

• For discrete time models (such as DSP algorithms), a frame based "blockset" of objects can be created and maintained as in Simulink.

• Troubleshooting target DSP solutions can be greatly aided with a parallel system of objects in MATLAB equipped with the analysis and visualization features for which MATLAB is renowned.

James Metzger is the branch chief of Digital Signal Processing at SPARTA, Inc., where he gets to apply his love of object-oriented programming to scientific applications (and they pay him for it, too). You may reach him at jrm@sparta.com.