Creating backwards compatible p-code for teaching purposes

Question

I am teaching some matlab classes and we have some version-ing issues ... some students use versions as old as 2008b and some of the computers in the lab have versions as old as 2007a (or as new as 2012b). I want to create some pcode files which will run on all of these versions ... that way they can check their results without seeing the actual code that created them.

I know that Matlab 2013a (the version I use daily) can operate pcode files made from any previous version but the older versions can't run pcode made with my computer.

Is there any way to create backwards compatible pcode files? I know I can just find the oldest version and make a pcode on that computer and distribute it ... but that's really annoying. Especially because I don't have licences for versions that are as old as some of the students (my oldest is 2010a and some students/lab-computers are still stuck on 2008b)

Thanks,

Will

Answer 1

From the documentation:

The pcode algorithm was redesigned in MATLAB 7.5 (Release R2007b). You can run older P-files in any current version of MATLAB; however, upcoming releases will not run P-files created before version 7.5. Files generated in 7.5, or later versions, cannot run in MATLAB 7.4 or earlier.

(Use docsearch pcode to view, expand "More about, Tips").

Based on the lack of any related tips or help, I suspect that pcode cannot be transitioned either way between pre-2007a and post-2007b.

From my experience, I have never had problems using pcode between versions. I think that this algorithm change in release 7.5 is a relatively rare thing.