Mercurial > web-octave
comparison pages/about.md @ 288:2e13395adcc0
Major design change, footer, texts.
author | Kai T. Ohlhus <k.ohlhus@gmail.com> |
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date | Sun, 29 May 2022 01:25:16 +0900 |
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2 layout: page | |
3 title: About | |
4 icon: <i class="fas fa-info-circle"></i> | |
5 menu: true | |
6 permalink: about | |
7 --- | |
8 | |
9 GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical | |
10 computations. | |
11 It provides a convenient command line interface for solving linear and | |
12 nonlinear problems numerically, | |
13 and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly | |
14 compatible with Matlab. | |
15 It may also be used as a batch-oriented language. | |
16 | |
17 Octave has extensive tools for solving common numerical linear algebra problems, | |
18 finding the roots of nonlinear equations, | |
19 integrating ordinary functions, | |
20 manipulating polynomials, | |
21 and integrating ordinary differential and differential-algebraic equations. | |
22 It is easily extensible and customizable via user-defined functions written in | |
23 Octave's own language, | |
24 or using dynamically loaded modules written in C++, C, Fortran, | |
25 or other languages. | |
26 | |
27 GNU Octave is also freely redistributable software. | |
28 You may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the | |
29 [GNU General Public License (GPL)][GPL] as published by the | |
30 [Free Software Foundation](https://www.fsf.org/). | |
31 | |
32 Octave was written by [John W. Eaton](mailto:jwe@octave.org) and | |
33 [many others](https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/doc/interpreter/contributors.in). | |
34 Because Octave is [free software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) you are encouraged to help make Octave | |
35 more useful by writing and contributing additional functions for it, | |
36 and by reporting any problems you may have. | |
37 | |
38 ### <i class="fas fa-landmark"></i> History | |
39 | |
40 Octave was originally conceived (in about 1988) to be companion software for an | |
41 undergraduate-level textbook on chemical reactor design being written by James | |
42 B. Rawlings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and John G. Ekerdt of the | |
43 University of Texas. | |
44 We originally envisioned some very specialized tools for the solution of | |
45 chemical reactor design problems. | |
46 Later, | |
47 after seeing the limitations of that approach, | |
48 we opted to attempt to build a much more flexible tool. | |
49 | |
50 There were still some people who said that we should just be using Fortran | |
51 instead, | |
52 because it is the computer language of engineering, | |
53 but every time we had tried that, | |
54 the students spent far too much time trying to figure out why their Fortran | |
55 code failed and not enough time learning about chemical engineering. | |
56 We believed that with an interactive environment like Octave, | |
57 most students would be able to pick up the basics quickly, | |
58 and begin using it confidently in just a few hours. | |
59 | |
60 Full-time development began in the Spring of 1992. | |
61 The first alpha release was January 4, 1993, and version 1.0 was released | |
62 February 17, 1994. | |
63 Since then, Octave has been through several major revisions and is included | |
64 with many GNU/Linux distributions. | |
65 Octave was first reviewed in the July, 1997 issue of the | |
66 [Linux Journal](https://web.archive.org/web/20211107141537/https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1225). | |
67 | |
68 Clearly, | |
69 Octave is now much more than just another courseware package with limited | |
70 utility beyond the classroom. | |
71 Although our initial goals were somewhat vague, | |
72 we knew that we wanted to create something that would enable students to solve | |
73 realistic problems, | |
74 and that they could use for many things other than chemical reactor design | |
75 problems. | |
76 Today, thousands of people worldwide are using Octave in teaching, | |
77 research, and commercial applications. | |
78 | |
79 Just about everyone thinks that the name Octave has something to do with music, | |
80 but it is actually the name of one of the author's former professor | |
81 [Octave Levenspiel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_Levenspiel) | |
82 who wrote a famous textbook on chemical reaction engineering, | |
83 and who was also well known for his ability to do quick "back of the envelope" | |
84 calculations. | |
85 We hope that this software will make it possible for many people to do more | |
86 ambitious computations just as easily. | |
87 | |
88 Everyone is encouraged to share this software with others under the terms of | |
89 the [GNU General Public License (GPL)][GPL]. | |
90 You are also encouraged to help make Octave more useful by writing and | |
91 contributing additional functions for it, | |
92 and by reporting any problems you may have. | |
93 | |
94 [GPL]: https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html |