MATLAB code, linked to an EXCEL DDE, doesn't pause. What should I do?

Question

I'm linking a MATLAB code to a DDE application in Excel. It works fine, but whenever I try to run the code, the operations are done without respecting pauses each time. This part gets paused in the right way, as it should be:

channel = ddeinit('excel','C:\VTScada\NewApplication\Application.xlsx')
%Inserire valori iniziali e finali
s_start = input('s_start','s')
pause(1)

When I run the remaning code, like this for example, it's like MATLAB sums all the values of pauses. Then, after some time, it runs all the code in a very rapid way, without respecting pauses each time.

ddepoke(channel,'r18c2',1)
pause(10)
ddepoke(channel,'r18c2',0)
ddepoke(channel,'r18c2',1)
pause(10)
ddepoke(channel,'r18c2',0)

I tried to solve this problem using the code

pause('on')
pause(10)
pause('off')

but it turns out that in this particular case, MATLAB doesn't respect pauses at all. It seems to worsen the situation. What should I do?

Answer 1

The Matlab pause command means more than just "wait for N seconds"; it interacts with the graphics pipeline and stuff.

This is a hack, but try doing this instead of pause:

java.lang.Thread.sleep(10 * 1000);

That's a lower-level operation that will temporarily stop the program's execution in a more unconditional manner. The * 1000 is there because sleep takes its input in milliseconds instead of seconds.

Answer 2

I solved the problem simpling by removing the '{}' after the if, and adding the 'Java.lang.Thread.sleep()' method, instead of the Pause() method.

Thanks to everyone for the help, in any case