Change the default mex compiler with a GUI / script

Hi, I'm building a gui and I want to be able to select the default mex compiler. I'm running Matlab R2013a. When I execute

mex -setup

I get

Welcome to mex -setup.  This utility will help you set up  
a default compiler.  For a list of supported compilers, see  
http://www.mathworks.com/support/compilers/R2013a/win32.html 

Please choose your compiler for building MEX-files: 

Would you like mex to locate installed compilers [y]/n? y

Select a compiler: 
[1] Lcc-win32 C 2.4.1 in \\[...]\APPS\Matlab\R2013A~1.10\sys\lcc 
[2] Microsoft Software Development Kit (SDK) 7.1 in c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0 

[0] None 

Compiler: 2

Please verify your choices: 

Compiler: Microsoft Software Development Kit (SDK) 7.1 
Location: c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0 

Are these correct [y]/n? y

Is it possible to change the compiler without having to access the Command Window? One option would be to first check for installed compilers, display them in a text and then select one.

The only problem I have is to get the available compilers to a set of strings and then change the compiler by a script.

so fare i have tried

my_var = evalc('mex -setup') %no response

my_var = eval('mex -setup') %Error using eval. Undefined function or variable 'setup'.

I really don't know how to continue.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

[Jan]

What do you want to achieve? Do you want to write a GUI-wrapper for mex -setup ? What is the benefit to hide the process in a GUI? Using the standard method through the command window is efficient and must not be done repeatedly.

I'm using a setup with different compilers. Therefore I activate a compiler at first using the mex -setup command. And then I rename the file "<prefdir>\mexopt.bat" to e.g. "<prefdir>\mexopt_MSVC2008_64.bat". Then I call the MSVC/64 compiler using:

mex('-f', fullfile(prefdir, 'mexopt_MSVC2008_64.bat'), 'myfunction.c')

By this way, I activate each compiler once only, and call the different compilers dynamically.

I've hidden this in a tiny function, to increase the usability.

[Hamsterfiedel]

I have source code for a SImulink S-Function. We have figured out, that the MS SDK 7.1 compiler works more stabel with our code than the Lcc.

So befor compiling I want to check which compiler is selected and change to MS SDK 7.1 if neccesarry.

[Jan]

Then searching for a specific string in prefdir \ mexopts.bat should be efficient. Modern Matlab versions allow to ask the mex command for the current setup - very useful! But unfortunately not available in older versions.

[Richard Crozier]

In recent Matlab versions the '-f' option is deprecated, is there another way to achieve this?