figures: a MATLAB function to create multiple figure windows

Description

figures is an extension to MATLAB's built-in figure command. figures supports all the syntax options of figure. Hence, it is highly compatible with most, if not all of your existing MATLAB files. The syntaxes below are the extended possibilities provided by figures.

Demonstration

Run figuresdemo for a demonstration of the possibilities of figures (warning: figuresdemo closes all figures before the demonstration).

Syntax

• figures does the same as the figure command; it creates a new figure window.
• figures(n) creates n figures in ascending order. Any currently existing figure windows are not replaced. Instead, the lowest available numbers are used to create the figure windows. For example, when figure 2 and 3 already exist, a call to figures(2) creates figure 1 and 4. n must be a scalar positive integer.
• figures(N) activates the figure windows with the numbers in vector N. Any non-existent figure windows are created. N must be a vector of positive integers.
• figures(__,'PropertyName',propertyvalue,...) uses the specified property values for all created or activated figure windows.
• figures(__,C) uses the specified property values in cell C for each created or activated figure window. Construct C using the following syntax: C = {{set1}, ..., {setN}}, where each set is any number of 'PropertyName',propertyvalue pairs.
• F = figures(__) also returns F, a column vector of handle(s) to the created or activated figure window(s) in descending order. This order is the same as MATLAB's built-in list of currently existing figure windows from get(0,'Children'). The order reflects the latest activated figure window.