Background: I've been programming in general for over 15 years, and in Matlab for 8-9 years. I'm teaching an undergraduate programming course in Matlab and Python next year, and I'm not finding too many good books for the Matlab side of things.

The problem is that there are plenty of "Python for Dummies," "Learn Python Fast," "Python for Literally Brain-Damaged Individuals" type books, but the Matlab textbooks mostly seem like they are intended for engineers and math geeks. There are some that are better than others, but still nothing that seems geared towards the true novice, with an emphasis on being non-intimidating.

I am well aware that online tutorials and such (and the Matlab help system) are a great way to learn (that's how I did it), but many of my students will be wanting a more linear textbook, so I'm thinking of just writing one myself. It probably wouldn't get done in time for the fall semester, but hopefully would be ready for the next school year.

My model would be something like "Learn Python the Hard Way," not so much in exact content but in length (short-ish), approachability / pacing / tone, and price ($3 for an electronic copy).

My first two questions to you are: Do you think the community (you) would be interested in something like this? Does it already exist and I'm just not finding it?

If the answers are yes and no, respectively, what would you like to see addressed? My audience for the class is psychology / cognitive neuroscience majors, but the book would be about Matlab programming more generally. However, I don't want to get into heavy numerical analysis topics like many books do -- I was thinking more general programming topics like program flow and data structures, along with making basic plots, light statistics / data analysis / matrix manipulation, etc.

Basically I think the goal would be to lightly introduce a bunch of topics but mostly focus on the Matlab language and programming ethos, so that students can then bootstrap their way to doing whatever actual programming job they need to do. Does that sound like a good approach? What topics would you all most like to see touched upon if I go this way?

Any feedback is much appreciated!

TL;DR Thinking of writing an intro Matlab book for true beginners, all thoughts / suggestions welcome.