Matlab IDE is OK but not great. I feel much better working with Emacs than the Matlab's GUI oriented IDE. I want to control everything by keyboard shortcuts. This page is a memo on using Matlab from Emacs. Actually, I don't like Matlab in the first place. However, there are some occasions where I'm forced to use Matlab. Here is what I do in those cases to relieve the pain of using Matlab.
I'm using Linux, so this memo assumes that you also use Linux. Probably it is not true for most people.
http://blogs.mathworks.com/desktop/2009/09/14/matlab-emacs-integration-is-back/