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1 GNU Octave -- a high-level language for numerical computations. |
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2 |
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3 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 John W. Eaton |
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4 |
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5 Last updated: Fri Apr 12 20:23:53 2002 |
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6 |
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7 Overview |
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8 -------- |
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9 |
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10 GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical |
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11 computations. It provides a convenient command line interface for |
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12 solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically. |
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13 |
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14 GNU Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
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15 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the |
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16 Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any |
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17 later version. |
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18 |
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19 GNU Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but |
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20 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of |
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21 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the file |
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22 COPYING for more details. |
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23 |
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24 Availability |
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25 ------------ |
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26 |
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27 The latest released version of Octave is always available via |
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28 anonymous ftp from ftp.octave.org in the directory /pub/octave. |
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29 Complete source and binaries for several popular systems are |
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30 available. Source distributions of Octave are also available from |
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31 ftp.gnu.org in the directory /pub/gnu, as well as many mirror |
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32 sites around the world. |
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33 |
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34 Installation and Bugs |
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35 --------------------- |
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36 |
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37 Octave requires approximately 125MB of disk storage to unpack and |
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38 compile from source (significantly less if you don't compile with |
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39 debugging symbols or create shared libraries). Once installed, Octave |
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40 requires approximately 65MB of disk space (again, considerably less if |
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41 you don't build shared libraries or the binaries and libraries do not |
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42 include debugging symbols). |
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43 |
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44 To compile Octave, you will need a recent version of GNU Make. You |
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45 will also need g++ 2.7.2 or later. Version 2.8.0 or egcs 1.0.x should |
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46 work. Later versions may work, but C++ is still evolving, so don't be |
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47 too surprised if you run into some trouble. |
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48 |
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49 It is no longer necessary to have libg++, but you do need to have the |
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50 GNU implementation of libstdc++. If you are using g++ 2.7.2, |
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51 libstdc++ is distributed along with libg++, but for later versions, |
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52 libstdc++ is distributed separately. For egcs, libstdc++ is included |
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53 with the compiler distribution. |
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54 |
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55 YOU MUST HAVE GNU MAKE TO COMPILE OCTAVE. Octave's Makefiles use |
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56 features of GNU Make that are not present in other versions of make. |
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57 GNU Make is very portable and easy to install. |
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58 |
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59 See the notes in the files INSTALL and INSTALL.OCTAVE for more |
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60 specific installation instructions, including directions for |
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61 installing Octave from a binary distribution. |
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62 |
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63 The file BUGS contains a recommended procedure for reporting bugs, as |
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64 well as a list of known problems and possible fixes. |
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65 |
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66 Documentation |
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67 ------------- |
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68 |
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69 Octave's manual has been revised for version 2.0, but it is lagging a |
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70 bit behind the development of the software. In particular, there is |
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71 currently no complete documentation of the C++ class libraries or the |
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72 support for dynamic linking and user-defined data types. If you |
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73 notice ommissions or inconsistencies, please report them as bugs to |
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74 bug@octave.org. Specific suggestions for ways to improve Octave and |
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75 its documentation are always welcome. |
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76 |
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77 Implementation |
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78 -------------- |
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79 |
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80 Octave is being developed with the Free Software Foundation's make, |
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81 bison (a replacement for YACC), flex (a replacement for lex), gcc/g++, |
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82 and libstdc++ on an Intel Pentium II system running Linux/GNU. It |
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83 should be possible to install it on any machine that runs GCC/G++. It |
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84 may also be possible to install it using other implementations of |
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85 these tools, but it will most certainly require much more work. Do |
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86 yourself a favor and get the GNU development tools, either via |
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87 anonymous ftp from ftp.gnu.org or by writing the Free Software |
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88 Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. |
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89 |
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90 The underlying numerical solvers are currently standard Fortran ones |
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91 like Lapack, Linpack, Odepack, the Blas, etc., packaged in a library |
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92 of C++ classes (see the files in the libcruft and liboctave |
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93 subdirectories). If possible, the Fortran subroutines are compiled |
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94 with the system's Fortran compiler, and called directly from the C++ |
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95 functions. If that's not possible, they are translated with f2c and |
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96 compiled with a C compiler. Better performance is usually achieved if |
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97 the intermediate translation to C is avoided. |
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98 |
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99 The library of C++ classes may also be useful by itself. |
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100 |
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101 Additional Information |
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102 ---------------------- |
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103 |
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104 Up to date information about Octave is available on the WWW at the |
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105 URL http://www.octave.org, including archives of the help-octave, |
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106 bug-octave, and octave-sources mailing lists. |
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107 |
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108 -- |
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109 John W. Eaton |
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110 jwe@bevo.che.wisc.edu |
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111 University of Wisconsin-Madison |
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112 Department of Chemical Engineering |
