Call a function by an external application without opening a new instance of Matlab

Question

Is there a way to call Matlab functions from outside, in particular by the Windows cmd (but also the Linux terminal, LUA-scripts, etc...), WITHOUT opening a new instance of Matlab each time?

for example in cmd:

matlab -sd myCurrentDirectory -r "function(parameters)" -nodesktop -nosplash -nojvm

opens a new instance of Matlab relatively fast and executes my function. Opening and closing of this reduced matlab prompt takes about 2 seconds (without computations) - hence for 4000 executions more than 2 hours. I'd like to avoid this, as the called function is always located in the same workspace. Can it be done in the same instance always?

I already did some research and found the possibility of the MATLAB COM Automation Server, but it seems quite complicated to me and I don't see the essential steps to make it work for my case. Any advices for that?

I'm not familiar with c/c++/c# but I'm thinking about the use of python (but just in the worst case).

Answer 1

Based on the not-working, but well thought, idea of @Ilya Kobelevskiy here the final workaround:

 function pipeConnection(numIterations,inputFile)

 for i=1:numIterations

 while(exist('inputfile','file'))

     load inputfile;
     % read inputfile -> inputdata
     output = myFunction(inputdata);

     delete('inputfile');
 end

 % Write output to file
 % Call external application to process output data
 % generate new inputfile 

 end;

Another convenient solution would be to compile an executable of the Matlab function:

mcc -m myfunction

run this .exe-file using cmd:

cd myCurrentDirectory && myfunction.exe parameter1 parameter2

Be aware that the parameters are now passed as strings and the original .m-file needs to be adjusted considering that.

further remarks:

• I guess Matlab still needs to be installed on the system, though it is not necessary to run it.
• I don't know how far this method is limited respectively the complexity of the underlying function.
• The speed-up compared to the initial apporach given in the question is relatively small