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1 --- |
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2 layout: page |
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3 title: GNU Octave Version 3.8 |
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4 menu: false |
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5 permalink: NEWS-3.8.html |
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6 --- |
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7 |
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8 ## Summary of important user-visible changes |
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9 |
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10 December 27, 2013 |
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11 |
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12 {% include release_news_select.md %} |
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13 |
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14 <pre> |
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15 ** One of the biggest new features for Octave 3.8 is a graphical user |
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16 interface. It is the one thing that users have requested most |
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17 often over the last few years and now it is almost ready. But |
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18 because it is not quite as polished as we would like, we have |
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19 decided to wait until the 4.0.x release series before making the |
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20 GUI the default interface (until then, you can use the --force-gui |
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21 option to start the GUI). |
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22 |
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23 Given the length of time and the number of bug fixes and |
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24 improvements since the last major release Octave, we also decided |
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25 against delaying the release of all these new improvements any |
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26 longer just to perfect the GUI. So please enjoy the 3.8 release of |
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27 Octave and the preview of the new GUI. We believe it is working |
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28 reasonably well, but we also know that there are some obvious rough |
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29 spots and many things that could be improved. |
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30 |
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31 WE NEED YOUR HELP. There are many ways that you can help us fix |
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32 the remaining problems, complete the GUI, and improve the overall |
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33 user experience for both novices and experts alike: |
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34 |
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35 * If you are a skilled software developer, you can help by |
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36 contributing your time to help with Octave's development. See |
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37 http://octave.org/get-involved.html for more information. |
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38 |
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39 * If Octave does not work properly, you are encouraged |
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40 report the problems you find. See http://octave.org/bugs.html |
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41 for more information about how to report problems. |
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42 |
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43 * Whether you are a user or developer, you can help to fund the |
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44 project. Octave development takes a lot of time and expertise. |
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45 Your contributions help to ensure that Octave will continue to |
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46 improve. See http://octave.org/donate.html for more details. |
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47 |
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48 We hope you find Octave to be useful. Please help us make it even |
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49 better for the future! |
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50 |
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51 ** Octave now uses OpenGL graphics by default with FLTK widgets. If |
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52 OpenGL libraries or FLTK widgets are not available when Octave is |
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53 built, gnuplot is used. You may also choose to use gnuplot for |
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54 graphics by executing the command |
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55 |
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56 graphics_toolkit ("gnuplot") |
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57 |
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58 Adding this command to your ~/.octaverc file will set the default |
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59 for each session. |
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60 |
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61 ** Printing or saving figures with OpenGL graphics requires the |
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62 gl2ps library which is no longer distributed with Octave. The |
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63 software is widely available in most package managers. If a |
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64 pre-compiled package does not exist for your system, you can find |
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65 the current sources at http://www.geuz.org/gl2ps/. |
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66 |
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67 ** Octave now supports nested functions with scoping rules that are |
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68 compatible with Matlab. A nested function is one declared and defined |
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69 within the body of another function. The nested function is only |
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70 accessible from within the enclosing function which makes it one |
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71 method for making private functions whose names do not conflict with those |
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72 in the global namespace (See also subfunctions and private functions). |
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73 In addition, variables in the enclosing function are visible within the |
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74 nested function. This makes it possible to have a pseudo-global variable |
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75 which can be seen by a group of functions, but which is not visible in |
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76 the global namespace. |
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77 |
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78 Example: |
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79 function outerfunc (...) |
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80 ... |
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81 function nested1 (...) |
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82 ... |
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83 function nested2 (...) |
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84 ... |
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85 endfunction |
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86 endfunction |
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87 |
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88 function nested3 (...) |
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89 ... |
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90 endfunction |
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91 endfunction |
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92 |
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93 ** Line continuations inside character strings have changed. |
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94 |
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95 The sequence '...' is no longer recognized as a line continuation |
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96 inside a character string. A backslash '\' followed by a newline |
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97 character is no longer recognized as a line continuation inside |
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98 single-quoted character strings. Inside double-quoted character |
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99 strings, a backslash followed by a newline character is still |
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100 recognized as a line continuation, but the backslash character must |
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101 be followed *immediately* by the newline character. No whitespace or |
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102 end-of-line comment may appear between them. |
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103 |
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104 ** Backslash as a continuation marker outside of double-quoted strings |
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105 is now deprecated. |
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106 |
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107 Using '\' as a continuation marker outside of double quoted strings |
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108 is now deprecated and will be removed from a future version of |
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109 Octave. When that is done, the behavior of |
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110 |
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111 (a \ |
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112 b) |
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113 |
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114 will be consistent with other binary operators. |
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115 |
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116 ** Redundant terminal comma accepted by parser |
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117 |
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118 A redundant terminal comma is now accepted in matrix |
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119 definitions which allows writing code such as |
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120 |
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121 [a,... |
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122 b,... |
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123 c,... |
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124 ] = deal (1,2,3) |
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125 |
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126 ** Octave now has limited support for named exceptions |
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127 |
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128 The following syntax is now accepted: |
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129 |
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130 try |
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131 statements |
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132 catch exception-id |
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133 statements |
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134 end |
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135 |
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136 The exception-id is a structure with the fields "message" and |
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137 "identifier". For example |
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138 |
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139 try |
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140 error ("Octave:error-id", "error message"); |
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141 catch myerr |
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142 printf ("identifier: %s\n", myerr.identifier); |
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143 printf ("message: %s\n", myerr.message); |
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144 end_try_catch |
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145 |
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146 When classdef-style classes are added to Octave, the exception-id |
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147 will become an MException object. |
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148 |
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149 ** Warning states may now be set temporarily, until the end of the |
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150 current function, using the syntax |
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151 |
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152 warning STATE ID "local" |
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153 |
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154 in which STATE may be "on", "off", or "error". Changes to warning |
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155 states that are set locally affect the current function and all |
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156 functions called from the current scope. The previous warning state |
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157 is restored on return from the current function. The "local" |
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158 option is ignored if used in the top-level workspace. |
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159 |
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160 ** Warning IDs renamed: |
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161 |
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162 Octave:array-as-scalar => Octave:array-to-scalar |
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163 Octave:array-as-vector => Octave:array-to-vector |
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164 |
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165 ** 'emptymatch', 'noemptymatch' options added to regular expressions. |
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166 |
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167 With this addition Octave now accepts the entire set of Matlab options |
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168 for regular expressions. 'noemptymatch' is the default, but 'emptymatch' |
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169 has certain uses where you need to match an assertion rather than actual |
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170 characters. For example, |
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171 |
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172 regexprep ('World', '^', 'Hello ', 'emptymatch') |
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173 => Hello World |
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174 |
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175 where the pattern is actually the assertion '^' or start-of-line. |
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176 |
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177 ** For compatibility with Matlab, the regexp, regexpi, and regexprep |
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178 functions now process backslash escape sequences in single-quoted pattern |
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179 strings. In addition, the regexprep function now processes backslash |
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180 escapes in single-quoted replacement strings. For example, |
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181 |
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182 regexprep (str, '\t', '\n') |
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183 |
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184 would search the variable str for a TAB character (escape sequence \t) |
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185 and replace it with a NEWLINE (escape sequence \n). Previously the |
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186 expression would have searched for a literal '\' followed by 't' and |
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187 replaced the two characters with the sequence '\', 'n'. |
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188 |
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189 ** A TeX parser has been implemented for the FLTK toolkit and is the default |
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190 for any text object including titles and axis labels. The TeX parser is |
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191 supported only for display on a monitor, not for printing. |
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192 |
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193 A quick summary of features: |
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194 |
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195 Code Feature Example Comment |
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196 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
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197 _ subscript H_2O formula for water |
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198 ^ exponent y=x^2 formula for parabola |
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199 \char symbol \beta Greek symbol beta |
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200 \fontname font \fontname{Arial} set Arial font |
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201 \fontsize fontsize \fontsize{16} set fontsize 16 |
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202 \color[rgb] fontcolor \color[rgb]{1 0 1} set magenta color |
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203 \bf bold \bfBold Text bold font |
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204 \it italic \itItalic Text italic font |
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205 \sl slanted \slOblique Text slanted font |
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206 \rm normal \bfBold\rmNormal normal font |
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207 {} group {\bf Bold}Normal group objects |
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208 e^{i*\pi} = -1 group objects |
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209 |
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210 ** The m-files in the plot directory have been overhauled. |
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211 |
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212 The plot functions now produce output that is nearly visually compatible |
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213 with Matlab. Plot performance has also increased, dramatically for some |
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214 functions such as comet and waitbar. Finally, the documentation for most |
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215 functions has been updated so it should be clearer both how to use a |
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216 function and when a function is appropriate. |
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217 |
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218 ** The m-files in the image directory have been overhauled. |
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219 |
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220 The principal benefit is that Octave will now no longer automatically |
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221 convert images stored with integers to doubles. Storing images as uint8 |
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222 or uint16 requires only 1/8 or 1/4 the memory of an image stored using |
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223 doubles. For certain operations, such as fft2, the image must still be |
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224 converted to double in order to work. |
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225 |
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226 Other changes include fixes to the way indexed images are read from a |
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227 colormap depending on the image class (integer images have a -1 offset to |
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228 the colormap row number). |
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229 |
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230 ** The imread and imwrite functions have been completely rewritten. |
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231 |
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232 The main changes relate to the alpha channel, support for reading and |
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233 writing of floating point images, implemented writing of indexed images, |
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234 and appending images to multipage image files. |
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235 |
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236 The issues that may arise due to backwards incompatibility are: |
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237 |
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238 * imwrite no longer interprets a length of 2 or 4 in the third dimension |
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239 as grayscale or RGB with alpha channel (a length of 4 will be saved |
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240 as a CMYK image). Alpha channel must be passed as separate argument. |
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241 |
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242 * imread will always return the colormap indexes when reading an indexed |
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243 image, even if the colormap is not requested as output. |
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244 |
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245 * transparency values are now inverted from previous Octave versions |
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246 (0 is for completely transparent instead of completely opaque). |
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247 |
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248 In addition, the function imformats has been implemented to expand |
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249 reading and writing of images of different formats through imread |
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250 and imwrite. |
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251 |
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252 ** The colormap function now provides new options--"list", "register", |
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253 and "unregister"--to list all available colormap functions, and to |
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254 add or remove a function name from the list of known colormap |
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255 functions. Packages that implement extra colormaps should use these |
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256 commands with PKG_ADD and PKG_DEL statements. |
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257 |
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258 ** strsplit has been modified to be compatible with Matlab. There |
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259 are two instances where backward compatibility is broken. |
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260 |
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261 (1) Delimiters are now string vectors, not scalars. |
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262 |
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263 Octave's legacy behavior |
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264 |
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265 strsplit ("1 2, 3", ", ") |
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266 ans = |
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267 { |
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268 [1,1] = 1 |
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269 [1,2] = 2 |
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270 [1,3] = |
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271 [1,4] = 3 |
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272 } |
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273 |
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274 Matlab compatible behavior |
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275 |
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276 strsplit ("1 2, 3", ", ") |
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277 ans = |
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278 { |
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279 [1,1] = 1 2 |
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280 [1,2] = 3 |
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281 } |
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282 |
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283 (2) By default, Matlab treats consecutive delimiters as a single |
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284 delimiter. By default, Octave's legacy behavior was to return an |
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285 empty string for the part between the delmiters. |
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286 |
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287 Where legacy behavior is desired, the call to strsplit() may be |
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288 replaced by ostrsplit(), which is Octave's original implementation of |
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289 strsplit(). |
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290 |
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291 ** The datevec function has been extended for better Matlab compatibility. |
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292 It now accepts string inputs in the following numerical formats: 12, 21, |
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293 22, 26, 29, 31. This is undocumented, but verifiable, Matlab behavior. |
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294 In addition, the default for formats which do not specify a date is |
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295 January 1st of the current year. The previous default was the current day, |
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296 month, and year. This may produce changes in existing scripts. |
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297 |
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298 ** The error function and its derivatives has been extended to accept complex |
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299 arguments. The following functions now accept complex inputs: |
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300 |
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301 erf erfc erfcx |
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302 |
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303 In addition two new error functions erfi (imaginary error function) and |
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304 dawson (scaled imaginary error function) have been added. |
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305 |
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306 ** The glpk function has been modified to reflect changes in the GLPK |
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307 library. The "round" and "itcnt" options have been removed. The |
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308 "relax" option has been replaced by the "rtest" option. The numeric |
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309 values of error codes and of some options have also changed. |
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310 |
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311 ** The kurtosis function has changed definition to be compatible with |
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312 Matlab. It now returns the base kurtosis instead of the "excess kurtosis". |
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313 The old behavior can be had by changing scripts to normalize with -3. |
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314 |
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315 "excess kurtosis" = kurtosis (x) - 3 |
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316 |
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317 ** The moment function has changed definition to be compatible with |
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318 Matlab. It now returns the central moment instead of the raw moment. |
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319 The old behavior can be had by passing the type argument "r" for raw. |
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320 |
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321 ** The default name of the Octave crash dump file is now |
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322 "octave-workspace" instead of "octave-core". The exact name can |
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323 always be customized with the octave_core_file_name function. |
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324 |
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325 ** A citation command has been added to display information on how to |
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326 cite Octave and packages in publications. The package system will |
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327 look for and install CITATION files from packages. |
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328 |
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329 ** The java package from Octave Forge is now part of core Octave. The |
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330 following new functions are available for interacting with Java |
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331 directly from Octave: |
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332 |
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333 debug_java java_matrix_autoconversion |
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334 isjava java_unsigned_autoconversion |
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335 java2mat javaaddpath |
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336 javaArray javaclasspath |
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337 javaMethod javamem |
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338 javaObject javarmpath |
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339 usejava |
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340 |
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341 In addition, the following functions that use the Java interface |
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342 are now available (provided that Octave is compiled with support for |
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343 Java enabled): |
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344 |
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345 helpdlg listdlg questdlg |
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346 inputdlg msgbox warndlg |
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347 |
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348 ** Other new functions added in 3.8.0: |
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349 |
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350 atan2d erfi lines |
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351 base64_decode expint linsolve |
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352 base64_encode findfigs missing_component_hook |
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353 betaincinv flintmax polyeig |
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354 built_in_docstrings_file fminsearch prefdir |
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355 cmpermute gallery preferences |
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356 cmunique gco readline_re_read_init_file |
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357 colorcube hdl2struct readline_read_init_file |
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358 copyobj history_save rgbplot |
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359 dawson imformats save_default_options |
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360 dblist importdata shrinkfaces |
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361 desktop isaxes splinefit |
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362 doc_cache_create iscolormap stemleaf |
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363 ellipj isequaln strjoin |
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364 ellipke jit_debug struct2hdl |
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365 erfcinv jit_enable tetramesh |
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366 jit_startcnt waterfall |
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367 |
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368 ** Deprecated functions. |
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369 |
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370 The following functions were deprecated in Octave 3.4 and have been |
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371 removed from Octave 3.8. |
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372 |
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373 autocor dispatch is_global setstr |
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374 autocov fstat krylovb strerror |
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375 betai gammai perror values |
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376 cellidx glpkmex replot |
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377 cquad is_duplicate_entry saveimage |
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378 |
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379 The following functions have been deprecated in Octave 3.8 and will |
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380 be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the second major |
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381 release after 3.8): |
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382 |
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383 default_save_options java_new |
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384 gen_doc_cache java_set |
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385 interp1q java_unsigned_conversion |
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386 isequalwithequalnans javafields |
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387 java_convert_matrix javamethods |
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388 java_debug re_read_readline_init_file |
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389 java_get read_readline_init_file |
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390 java_invoke saving_history |
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391 |
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392 |
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393 The following keywords have been deprecated in Octave 3.8 and will |
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394 be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the second major |
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395 release after 3.8): |
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396 |
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397 static |
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398 |
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399 The following configuration variables have been deprecated in Octave |
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400 3.8 and will be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the |
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401 second major release after 3.8): |
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402 |
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403 CC_VERSION (now GCC_VERSION) |
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404 CXX_VERSION (now GXX_VERSION) |
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405 |
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406 The internal class Octave_map has been deprecated in Octave 3.8 and |
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407 will be removed from Octave 3.12 (or whatever version is the second |
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408 major release after 3.8). Replacement classes are octave_map |
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409 (struct array) or octave_scalar_map for a single structure. |
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410 </pre> |
