Mercurial > web-octave
comparison pages/about.md @ 215:dedb85c54245
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author | Kai T. Ohlhus <k.ohlhus@gmail.com> |
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date | Thu, 10 Sep 2020 17:47:36 +0900 |
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2 layout: page | |
3 title: About | |
4 menu: true | |
5 permalink: about | |
6 --- | |
7 | |
8 GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical | |
9 computations. | |
10 It provides a convenient command line interface for solving linear and | |
11 nonlinear problems numerically, | |
12 and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly | |
13 compatible with Matlab. | |
14 It may also be used as a batch-oriented language. | |
15 | |
16 Octave has extensive tools for solving common numerical linear algebra problems, | |
17 finding the roots of nonlinear equations, | |
18 integrating ordinary functions, | |
19 manipulating polynomials, | |
20 and integrating ordinary differential and differential-algebraic equations. | |
21 It is easily extensible and customizable via user-defined functions written in | |
22 Octave's own language, | |
23 or using dynamically loaded modules written in C++, C, Fortran, | |
24 or other languages. | |
25 | |
26 GNU Octave is also freely redistributable software. | |
27 You may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the | |
28 [GNU General Public License (GPL)][GPL] as published by the | |
29 [Free Software Foundation](https://www.fsf.org/). | |
30 | |
31 Octave was written by [John W. Eaton](mailto:jwe@octave.org) and | |
32 [many others](https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/doc/interpreter/contributors.in). | |
33 Because Octave is [free software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) you are encouraged to help make Octave | |
34 more useful by writing and contributing additional functions for it, | |
35 and by reporting any problems you may have. | |
36 | |
37 | |
38 ## 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, | |
64 is included with [Debian GNU/Linux](https://www.debian.org/), | |
65 [openSUSE](https://www.opensuse.org/), | |
66 and many other GNU/Linux distributions. | |
67 Octave was reviewed in the in the July, 1997 issue of the | |
68 [Linux Journal](http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1225). | |
69 | |
70 Clearly, | |
71 Octave is now much more than just another courseware package with limited | |
72 utility beyond the classroom. | |
73 Although our initial goals were somewhat vague, | |
74 we knew that we wanted to create something that would enable students to solve | |
75 realistic problems, | |
76 and that they could use for many things other than chemical reactor design | |
77 problems. | |
78 Today, thousands of people worldwide are using Octave in teaching, | |
79 research, and commercial applications. | |
80 | |
81 Just about everyone thinks that the name Octave has something to do with music, | |
82 but it is actually the name of one of the author's former professor | |
83 [Octave Levenspiel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_Levenspiel) | |
84 who wrote a famous textbook on chemical reaction engineering, | |
85 and who was also well known for his ability to do quick "back of the envelope" | |
86 calculations. | |
87 We hope that this software will make it possible for many people to do more | |
88 ambitious computations just as easily. | |
89 | |
90 Everyone is encouraged to share this software with others under the terms of | |
91 the [GNU General Public License (GPL)][GPL]. | |
92 You are also encouraged to help make Octave more useful by writing and | |
93 contributing additional functions for it, | |
94 and by reporting any problems you may have. | |
95 | |
96 [GPL]: https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html |