MSOCKET

Author: Steven Michael (smichael@ll.mit.edu)
Date:   5/19/06

Description:

Copyright 2006 MIT Lincoln Laboratory 
Released under the GNU LGPL.  See lgpl.txt in this directory

This is a suite of tools that allow TCP/IP socket communication via MATLAB.
In particular, the tools allow for easy communication of MATLAB variables
between networked MATLAB sessions via the "mssend" and "msrecv" functions. 
All variable types, including strutures and cells, are supported.  

The socket communication is done via compiled C and C++ mex files that make
the standard socket calls.  Big-Endian / Little-Endian switching
is supported via a flag in the Makefile.

"mssendraw" and "msrecvraw" are also included.  These allow for sending
and receiving raw character data over the socket.  They are not well tested. 

Binaries are included for x86 Linux and windows.  Compiling for other 
systems should be simple, as the socket calls are standard over different
operating systems.  

The "winmake" directory includes Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 project
files for compiling the windows libraries.

The source is setup to compile under the MAC or solaris platforms 
with endian switching to allow for communication between machines
with different endian types.  This has been verified to work. When
compiling on big-endian platforms (MAC, Solaris) make sure the 
compiler includes the compile flag "-D_BIG_ENDIAN_" to turn on the 
endian switching.

Note: the Windows files with the ".mexw32" extension may have to be 
renamed to a ".dll" extension to work with versions of MATLAB older than
R14 service pack 3.

Note: under windows, the files are compiled with the Microsoft Visual 
Studio 8.0 compilers.  This may require installation of the Visual Studio
runtime libraries. These are included with MATLAB under:
$MATLAB/bin/win32/vcredist_x86.exe
See: http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/1-2223MW.html 

Example:    

    This example has a client connect to a server and receive 
    a variable 

        Server Side             |       Client side
                                |
 >> sendvar = 3;                |
 >> srvsock = mslisten(3000);   |
                                |
                                | >> sock = msconnect(server,3000);  
                                |
 >> sock = msaccept(srvsock);   |
 >> msclose(srvsock);           |
 >> mssend(sock,sendvar);       | >> recvvar = msrecv(sock);
 >> msclose(sock);              | >> msclose(sock);




Changes:

2/21/07
  1. Fix the msrecv function such that it is capable of receiving 
     the variable length message with multiple receive calls
     (bug and fix provided by Roderic Collins)
  2. Visual Studio files for windows now point to default installation
     location for Matlab R2006b
  3. Handle new mwSize MATLAB variable type for dimensions
     (new in R2006b ?)
  4. Handle characters 16 bit (native for MATLAB) instead of 8 bit
  5. Fix crash when sending empty variables
  6. Allow "mssendraw" to send non-uint8 data types
     (receiver must be smart enough to figure out the data stream)

7/24/06
  1. Fix the mssendraw and mssrecvraw functions.
     These are now verified to work.
     (mssendraw now sends only uint8 data types)
  2. Release under the GNU LGPL
  3. include MATLAB functions "compileit.m" and
     "compileit_windows.m" to facilitate compiling
     under MATLAB.

5/23/06
  1. Fix the big endian / little endian switching
     (now works correctly on MAC)
  2. Include binaries for MAC and x86_64 systems in
     addition to Windows and Linux x86