title: Error using simple matrix multiplication
body: <p>I stumbled upon an error during a simple multiplication that rather surprised me. What is happening here, I always assumed <code>*</code> was only for <a href="http://www.mathworks.nl/help/matlab/matlab_prog/operators.html">matrix multiplication</a>.</p>
  
  <pre><code>x = 2;
  y = zeros(1,4);
  y(1) = 1 *x;
  y(2) = x* 1;
  y(3) = (x *1);
  y(4) = x *1;
  y
  x *1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Will give the following output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>y =
  
       2     2     2     1
  
  Error: "x" was previously used as a variable,
  conflicting with its use here as the name of a function or command.
  See MATLAB Programming, "How MATLAB Recognizes Function Calls That Use Command Syntax" for details.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Does anyone understand what is going on here? Of course I verified that <code>x</code> is not a function.</p>