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1 --- |
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2 layout: page |
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3 title: GNU Octave Version 3.4 |
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4 permalink: NEWS-3.4.html |
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5 --- |
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6 |
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7 ## Summary of important user-visible changes |
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8 |
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9 February 8, 2011 |
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10 |
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11 {% include release_news_select.md %} |
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12 |
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13 <pre> |
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14 ** IMPORTANT note about binary incompatibility in this release: |
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15 |
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16 Binary compatibility for all 3.4.x releases was originally planned, |
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17 but this is impossible for the 3.4.1 release due to a bug in the way |
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18 shared libraries were built in Octave 3.4.0. Because of this bug, |
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19 .oct files built for Octave 3.4.0 must be recompiled before they |
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20 will work with Octave 3.4.1. |
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21 |
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22 Given that there would be binary incompatibilities with shared |
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23 libraries going from Octave 3.4.0 to 3.4.1, the following |
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24 incompatible changes were also made in this release: |
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25 |
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26 * The Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) library is now |
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27 required to build Octave. |
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28 |
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29 * Octave's libraries and .oct files are now installed in |
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30 subdirectories of $libdir instead of $libexecdir. |
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31 |
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32 Any future Octave 3.4.x release versions should remain binary |
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33 compatible with Octave 3.4.1 as proper library versioning is now |
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34 being used as recommended by the libtool manual. |
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35 |
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36 ** The following functions have been deprecated in Octave 3.4.1 and will |
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37 be removed from Octave 3.8 (or whatever version is the second major |
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38 release after 3.4): |
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39 |
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40 cquad is_duplicate_entry perror strerror |
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41 |
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42 ** The following functions are new in 3.4.1: |
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43 |
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44 colstyle gmres iscolumn isrow mgorth nproc rectangle |
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45 |
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46 ** The get_forge_pkg function is now private. |
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47 |
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48 ** The rectangle_lw, rectangle_sw, triangle_lw, and triangle_sw |
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49 functions are now private. |
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50 |
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51 ** The logistic_regression_derivatives and logistic_regression_likelihood |
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52 functions are now private. |
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53 |
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54 ** ChangeLog files in the Octave sources are no longer maintained |
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55 by hand. Instead, there is a single ChangeLog file generated from |
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56 the Mercurial version control commit messages. Older ChangeLog |
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57 information can be found in the etc/OLD-ChangeLogs directory in the |
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58 source distribution. |
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59 |
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60 Summary of important user-visible changes for version 3.4: |
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61 --------------------------------------------------------- |
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62 |
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63 ** BLAS and LAPACK libraries are now required to build Octave. The |
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64 subset of the reference BLAS and LAPACK libraries has been removed |
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65 from the Octave sources. |
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66 |
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67 ** The `lookup' function was extended to be more useful for |
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68 general-purpose binary searching. Using this improvement, the |
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69 ismember function was rewritten for significantly better |
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70 performance. |
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71 |
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72 ** Real, integer and logical matrices, when used in indexing, will now |
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73 cache the internal index_vector value (zero-based indices) when |
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74 successfully used as indices, eliminating the conversion penalty for |
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75 subsequent indexing by the same matrix. In particular, this means it |
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76 is no longer needed to avoid repeated indexing by logical arrays |
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77 using find for performance reasons. |
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78 |
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79 ** Logical matrices are now treated more efficiently when used as |
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80 indices. Octave will keep the index as a logical mask unless the |
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81 ratio of true elements is small enough, using a specialized |
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82 code. Previously, all logical matrices were always first converted |
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83 to index vectors. This results in savings in both memory and |
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84 computing time. |
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85 |
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86 ** The `sub2ind' and `ind2sub' functions were reimplemented as compiled |
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87 functions for better performance. These functions are now faster, |
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88 can deliver more economized results for ranges, and can reuse the |
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89 index cache mechanism described in previous paragraph. |
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90 |
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91 ** The built-in function equivalents to associative operators (`plus', |
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92 `times', `mtimes', `and', and `or') have been extended to accept |
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93 multiple arguments. This is especially useful for summing |
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94 (multiplying, etc.) lists of objects (of possibly distinct types): |
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95 |
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96 matrix_sum = plus (matrix_list{:}); |
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97 |
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98 ** An FTP object type based on libcurl has been implemented. These |
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99 objects allow ftp connections, downloads and uploads to be |
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100 managed. For example, |
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101 |
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102 fp = ftp ("ftp.octave.org); |
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103 cd (fp, "gnu/octave"); |
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104 mget (fp, "octave-3.2.3.tar.bz2"); |
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105 close (fp); |
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106 |
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107 ** The default behavior of `assert (observed, expected)' has been |
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108 relaxed to employ less strict checking that does not require the |
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109 internals of the values to match. This avoids previously valid |
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110 tests from breaking due to new internal classes introduced in future |
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111 Octave versions. |
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112 |
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113 For instance, all of these assertions were true in Octave 3.0.x |
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114 but false in 3.2.x due to new optimizations and improvements: |
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115 |
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116 assert (2*linspace (1, 5, 5), 2*(1:5)) |
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117 assert (zeros (0, 0), []) |
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118 assert (2*ones (1, 5), (2) (ones (1,5))) |
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119 |
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120 ** The behavior of library functions `ismatrix', `issquare', and |
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121 `issymmetric' has been changed for better consistency. |
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122 |
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123 * The `ismatrix' function now returns true for all numeric, |
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124 logical and character 2-D or N-D matrices. Previously, `ismatrix' |
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125 returned false if the first or second dimension was zero. |
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126 Hence, `ismatrix ([])' was false, |
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127 while `ismatrix (zeros (1,2,0))' was true. |
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128 |
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129 * The `issquare' function now returns a logical scalar, and is |
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130 equivalent to the expression |
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131 |
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132 ismatrix (x) && ndims (x) == 2 && rows (x) == columns (x) |
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133 |
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134 The dimension is no longer returned. As a result, `issquare ([])' |
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135 now yields true. |
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136 |
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137 * The `issymmetric' function now checks for symmetry instead of |
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138 Hermitianness. For the latter, ishermitian was created. Also, |
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139 logical scalar is returned rather than the dimension, so |
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140 `issymmetric ([])' is now true. |
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141 |
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142 ** Function handles are now aware of overloaded functions. If a |
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143 function is overloaded, the handle determines at the time of its |
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144 reference which function to call. A non-overloaded version does not |
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145 need to exist. |
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146 |
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147 ** Overloading functions for built-in classes (double, int8, cell, |
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148 etc.) is now compatible with Matlab. |
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149 |
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150 ** Function handles can now be compared with the == and != operators, |
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151 as well as the `isequal' function. |
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152 |
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153 ** Performance of concatenation (using []) and the functions `cat', |
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154 `horzcat', and `vertcat' has been improved for multidimensional |
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155 arrays. |
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156 |
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157 ** The operation-assignment operators +=, -=, *= and /= now behave more |
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158 efficiently in certain cases. For instance, if M is a matrix and S a |
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159 scalar, then the statement |
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160 |
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161 M += S; |
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162 |
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163 will operate on M's data in-place if it is not shared by another |
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164 variable, usually increasing both time and memory efficiency. |
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165 |
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166 Only selected common combinations are affected, namely: |
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167 |
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168 matrix += matrix |
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169 matrix -= matrix |
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170 matrix .*= matrix |
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171 matrix ./= matrix |
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172 |
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173 matrix += scalar |
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174 matrix -= scalar |
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175 matrix *= scalar |
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176 matrix /= scalar |
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177 |
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178 logical matrix |= logical matrix |
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179 logical matrix &= logical matrix |
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180 |
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181 where matrix and scalar belong to the same class. The left-hand |
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182 side must be a simple variable reference. |
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183 |
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184 Moreover, when unary operators occur in expressions, Octave will |
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185 also try to do the operation in-place if it's argument is a |
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186 temporary expresssion. |
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187 |
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188 ** The effect of comparison operators (<, >, <=, and >=) applied to |
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189 complex numbers has changed to be consistent with the strict |
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190 ordering defined by the `max', `min', and `sort' functions. More |
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191 specifically, complex numbers are compared by lexicographical |
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192 comparison of the pairs `[abs(z), arg(z)]'. Previously, only real |
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193 parts were compared; this can be trivially achieved by wrapping the |
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194 operands in real(). |
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195 |
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196 ** The automatic simplification of complex computation results has |
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197 changed. Octave will now simplify any complex number with a zero |
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198 imaginary part or any complex matrix with all elements having zero |
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199 imaginary part to a real value. Previously, this was done only for |
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200 positive zeros. Note that the behavior of the complex function is |
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201 unchanged and it still produces a complex value even if the |
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202 imaginary part is zero. |
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203 |
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204 ** As a side effect of code refactoring in liboctave, the binary |
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205 logical operations are now more easily amenable to compiler |
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206 optimizations and are thus significantly faster. |
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207 |
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208 ** Octave now allows user-defined `subsasgn' methods to optimize out |
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209 redundant copies. For more information, see the manual. |
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210 |
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211 ** More efficient matrix division handling. Octave is now able to |
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212 handle the expressions |
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213 |
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214 M' \ V |
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215 M.' \ V |
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216 V / M |
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217 |
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218 (M is a matrix and V is a vector) more efficiently in certain cases. |
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219 In particular, if M is triangular, all three expressions will be |
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220 handled by a single call to xTRTRS (from LAPACK), with appropriate |
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221 flags. Previously, all three expressions required a physical |
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222 transpose of M. |
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223 |
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224 ** More efficient handling of certain mixed real-complex matrix |
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225 operations. For instance, if RM is a real matrix and CM a complex |
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226 matrix, |
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227 |
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228 RM * CM |
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229 |
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230 can now be evaluated either as |
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231 |
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232 complex (RM * real (CM), RM * imag (CM)) |
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233 |
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234 or as |
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235 |
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236 complex (RM) * CM, |
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237 |
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238 depending on the dimensions. The first form requires more |
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239 temporaries and copying, but halves the FLOP count, which normally |
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240 brings better performance if RM has enough rows. Previously, the |
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241 second form was always used. |
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242 |
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243 Matrix division is similarly affected. |
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244 |
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245 ** More efficient handling of triangular matrix factors returned from |
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246 factorizations. The functions for computing QR, LU and Cholesky |
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247 factorizations will now automatically return the triangular matrix |
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248 factors with proper internal matrix_type set, so that it won't need |
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249 to be computed when the matrix is used for division. |
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250 |
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251 ** The built-in `sum' function now handles the non-native summation |
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252 (i.e., double precision sum of single or integer inputs) more |
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253 efficiently, avoiding a temporary conversion of the whole input |
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254 array to doubles. Further, `sum' can now accept an extra option |
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255 argument, using a compensated summation algorithm rather than a |
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256 straightforward sum, which significantly improves precision if lots |
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257 of cancellation occurs in the summation. |
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258 |
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259 ** The built-in `bsxfun' function now uses optimized code for certain |
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260 cases where built-in operator handles are passed in. Namely, the |
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261 optimizations concern the operators `plus', `minus', `times', |
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262 `ldivide', `rdivide', `power', `and', `or' (for logical arrays), |
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263 the relational operators `eq', `ne', `lt', `le', `gt', `ge', and the |
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264 functions `min' and `max'. Optimizations only apply when both |
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265 operands are of the same built-in class. Mixed real/complex and |
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266 single/double operations will first convert both operands to a |
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267 common type. |
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268 |
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269 ** The `strfind' and `strrep' functions now have compiled |
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270 implementations, facilitating significantly more efficient searching |
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271 and replacing in strings, especially with longer patterns. The code |
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272 of `strcat' has been vectorized and is now much more efficient when |
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273 many strings are concatenated. The `strcmpi' and `strncmpi' |
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274 functions are now built-in functions, providing better performance. |
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275 |
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276 ** Matlab-style ignoring input and output function arguments using |
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277 tilde (~) is now supported. Ignored output arguments may be |
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278 detected from a function using the built-in function `isargout'. |
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279 For more details, consult the manual. |
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280 |
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281 ** The list datatype, deprecated since the introduction of cells, has |
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282 been removed. |
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283 |
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284 ** The accumarray function has been optimized and is now significantly |
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285 faster in certain important cases. |
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286 |
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287 ** The behavior of isreal and isnumeric functions was changed to be more |
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288 Matlab-compatible. |
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289 |
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290 ** The integer math & conversion warnings (Octave:int-convert-nan, |
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291 Octave:int-convert-non-int-val, Octave:int-convert-overflow, |
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292 Octave:int-math-overflow) have been removed. |
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293 |
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294 ** rem and mod are now built-in functions. They also handle integer |
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295 types efficiently using integer arithmetic. |
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296 |
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297 ** Sparse indexing and indexed assignment has been mostly rewritten. |
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298 Since Octave uses compressed column storage for sparse matrices, |
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299 major attention is devoted to operations manipulating whole columns. |
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300 Such operations are now significantly faster, as well as some other |
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301 important cases. |
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302 |
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303 Further, it is now possible to pre-allocate a sparse matrix and |
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304 subsequently fill it by assignments, provided they meet certain |
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305 conditions. For more information, consult the `spalloc' function, |
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306 which is no longer a mere dummy. Consequently, nzmax and nnz are no |
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307 longer always equal in Octave. Octave may also produce a matrix |
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308 with nnz < nzmax as a result of other operations, so you should |
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309 consistently use nnz unless you really want to use nzmax (i.e. the |
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310 space allocated for nonzero elements). |
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311 |
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312 Sparse concatenation is also affected, and concatenating sparse |
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313 matrices, especially larger collections, is now significantly more |
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314 efficient. This applies to both the [] operator and the |
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315 cat/vertcat/horzcat functions. |
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316 |
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317 ** It is now possible to optionally employ the xGESDD LAPACK drivers |
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318 for computing the singular value decomposition using svd(), instead |
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319 of the default xGESVD, using the configuration pseudo-variable |
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320 svd_driver. The xGESDD driver can be up to 6x times faster when |
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321 singular vectors are requested, but is reported to be somewhat less |
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322 robust on highly ill-conditioned matrices. |
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323 |
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324 ** Configuration pseudo-variables, such as page_screen_output or |
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325 confirm_recursive_rmdir (or the above mentioned svd_driver), now |
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326 accept a "local" option as second argument, requesting the change |
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327 to be undone when the current function returns: |
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328 |
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329 function [status, msg] = rm_rf (dir) |
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330 confirm_recursive_rmdir (false, "local"); |
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331 [status, msg] = rmdir (dir, "s"); |
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332 ... |
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333 endfunction |
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334 |
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335 Upon return, confirm_recursive_rmdir will be restored to the value |
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336 it had on entry to the function, even if there were subsequent |
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337 changes to the variable in function rm_rf or any of the functions |
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338 it calls. |
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339 |
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340 ** pkg now accepts a -forge option for downloading and installing |
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341 packages from Octave Forge automatically. For example, |
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342 |
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343 pkg install -forge general |
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344 |
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345 will automatically download the latest release of the general |
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346 package and attempt to install it. No automatic resolving of |
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347 dependencies is provided. Further, |
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348 |
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349 pkg list -forge |
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350 |
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351 can be used to list all available packages. |
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352 |
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353 ** The internal data representation of structs has been completely |
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354 rewritten to make certain optimizations feasible. The field data |
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355 can now be shared between structs with equal keys but different |
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356 dimensions or values, making operations that preserve the fields |
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357 faster. Economized storage is now used for scalar structs (just |
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358 like most other scalars), making their usage more |
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359 memory-efficient. Certain array-like operations on structs |
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360 (concatenation, uniform cellfun, num2cell) have gained a |
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361 significant speed-up. Additionally, the octave_scalar_map class |
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362 now provides a simpler interface to work with scalar structs within |
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363 a C++ DLD function. |
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364 |
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365 ** Two new formats are available for displaying numbers: |
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366 |
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367 format short eng |
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368 format long eng |
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369 |
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370 Both display numbers in engineering notation, i.e., mantissa + |
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371 exponent where the exponent is a multiple of 3. |
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372 |
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373 ** The following functions are new in Octave 3.4: |
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374 |
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375 accumdim erfcx nfields pqpnonneg uigetdir |
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376 bitpack fileread nth_element quadcc uigetfile |
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377 bitunpack fminbnd onCleanup randi uiputfile |
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378 blkmm fskipl pbaspect repelems uimenu |
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379 cbrt ifelse pie3 reset whitebg |
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380 curl ishermitian powerset rsf2csf |
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381 chop isindex ppder saveas |
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382 daspect luupdate ppint strread |
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383 divergence merge ppjumps textread |
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384 |
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385 ** Using the image function to view images with external programs such |
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386 as display, xv, and xloadimage is no longer supported. The |
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387 image_viewer function has also been removed. |
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388 |
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389 ** The behavior of struct assignments to non-struct values has been |
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390 changed. Previously, it was possible to overwrite an arbitrary |
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391 value: |
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392 |
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393 a = 1; |
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394 a.x = 2; |
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395 |
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396 This is no longer possible unless a is an empty matrix or cell |
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397 array. |
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398 |
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399 ** The dlmread function has been extended to allow specifying a custom |
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400 value for empty fields. |
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401 |
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402 ** The dlmread and dlmwrite functions have been modified to accept |
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403 file IDs (as returned by fopen) in addition to file names. |
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404 |
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405 ** Octave can now optimize away the interpreter overhead of an |
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406 anonymous function handle, if the function simply calls another |
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407 function or handle with some of its parameters bound to certain |
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408 values. Example: |
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409 |
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410 f = @(x) sum (x, 1); |
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411 |
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412 When f is called, the call is forwarded to @sum with the constant 1 |
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413 appended, and the anonymous function call does not occur on the |
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414 call stack. |
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415 |
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416 ** Deprecated functions. |
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417 |
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418 The following functions were deprecated in Octave 3.0 and have been |
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419 removed from Octave 3.4. |
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420 |
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421 beta_cdf geometric_pdf pascal_pdf |
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422 beta_inv geometric_rnd pascal_rnd |
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423 beta_pdf hypergeometric_cdf poisson_cdf |
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424 beta_rnd hypergeometric_inv poisson_inv |
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425 binomial_cdf hypergeometric_pdf poisson_pdf |
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426 binomial_inv hypergeometric_rnd poisson_rnd |
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427 binomial_pdf intersection polyinteg |
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428 binomial_rnd is_bool setstr |
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429 chisquare_cdf is_complex struct_contains |
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430 chisquare_inv is_list struct_elements |
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431 chisquare_pdf is_matrix t_cdf |
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432 chisquare_rnd is_scalar t_inv |
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433 clearplot is_square t_pdf |
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434 clg is_stream t_rnd |
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435 com2str is_struct uniform_cdf |
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436 exponential_cdf is_symmetric uniform_inv |
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437 exponential_inv is_vector uniform_pdf |
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438 exponential_pdf isstr uniform_rnd |
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439 exponential_rnd lognormal_cdf weibcdf |
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440 f_cdf lognormal_inv weibinv |
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441 f_inv lognormal_pdf weibpdf |
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442 f_pdf lognormal_rnd weibrnd |
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443 f_rnd meshdom weibull_cdf |
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444 gamma_cdf normal_cdf weibull_inv |
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445 gamma_inv normal_inv weibull_pdf |
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446 gamma_pdf normal_pdf weibull_rnd |
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447 gamma_rnd normal_rnd wiener_rnd |
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448 geometric_cdf pascal_cdf |
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449 geometric_inv pascal_inv |
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450 |
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451 The following functions were deprecated in Octave 3.2 and will |
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452 be removed from Octave 3.6 (or whatever version is the second major |
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453 release after 3.2): |
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454 |
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455 create_set spcholinv splu |
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456 dmult spcumprod spmax |
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457 iscommand spcumsum spmin |
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458 israwcommand spdet spprod |
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459 lchol spdiag spqr |
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460 loadimage spfind spsum |
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461 mark_as_command sphcat spsumsq |
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462 mark_as_rawcommand spinv spvcat |
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463 spatan2 spkron str2mat |
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464 spchol splchol unmark_command |
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465 spchol2inv split unmark_rawcommand |
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466 |
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467 The following functions have been deprecated in Octave 3.4 and will |
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468 be removed from Octave 3.8 (or whatever version is the second major |
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469 release after 3.4): |
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470 |
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471 autocor cellidx gammai krylovb values |
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472 autocov dispatch glpkmex replot |
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473 betai fstat is_global saveimage |
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474 |
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475 * For compatibility with Matlab, mu2lin (x) is now equivalent to |
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476 mu2lin (x, 0). |
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477 |
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478 * The ARPACK library is now distributed with Octave so it no longer |
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479 needs to be available as an external dependency when building |
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480 Octave. |
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481 </pre> |
