Is there a way to just run the matlab (7.9.0) editor and not the rest of the "desktop" on linux?
No, this is no longer possible since r2007a.
You can get Matlab syntax highlighting for emacs and vi, though.
You can add Matlab syntax highlighting to Kate via a plugin. I don't know about gedit, but there's probably an addon for that as well.
This can't be done directly, because the editor stopped being a stand-alone executable many releases ago. It is now launched as a separate Java window from the Matlab desktop. However, you could try hiding the desktop once the editor is displayed, using the following simple code snippet:
com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance.getMainFrame.hide % to hide desktop
com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance.getMainFrame.show % to show desktop
Note that if your editor is docked to the desktop, it will be hidden together with the desktop, so be careful...
On my windows machine, I can start MATLAB with the -nodesktop
option, then once in the command prompt, I start only the editor with edit
.
Im not sure if this is different in terms of memory space used, but this way you only get the editor and the command prompt (no auto-completion though)