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+---
+layout: page
+title: About
+menu: true
+permalink: about
+---
+
+GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical
+computations.
+It provides a convenient command line interface for solving linear and
+nonlinear problems numerically,
+and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly
+compatible with Matlab.
+It may also be used as a batch-oriented language.
+
+Octave has extensive tools for solving common numerical linear algebra problems,
+finding the roots of nonlinear equations,
+integrating ordinary functions,
+manipulating polynomials,
+and integrating ordinary differential and differential-algebraic equations.
+It is easily extensible and customizable via user-defined functions written in
+Octave's own language,
+or using dynamically loaded modules written in C++, C, Fortran,
+or other languages.
+
+GNU Octave is also freely redistributable software.
+You may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
+[GNU General Public License (GPL)][GPL] as published by the
+[Free Software Foundation](https://www.fsf.org/).
+
+Octave was written by [John W. Eaton](mailto:jwe@octave.org) and
+[many others](https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/doc/interpreter/contributors.in).
+Because Octave is [free software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) you are encouraged to help make Octave
+more useful by writing and contributing additional functions for it,
+and by reporting any problems you may have.
+
+
+## History
+
+Octave was originally conceived (in about 1988) to be companion software for an
+undergraduate-level textbook on chemical reactor design being written by James
+B. Rawlings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and John G. Ekerdt of the
+University of Texas.
+We originally envisioned some very specialized tools for the solution of
+chemical reactor design problems.
+Later,
+after seeing the limitations of that approach,
+we opted to attempt to build a much more flexible tool.
+
+There were still some people who said that we should just be using Fortran
+instead,
+because it is the computer language of engineering,
+but every time we had tried that,
+the students spent far too much time trying to figure out why their Fortran
+code failed and not enough time learning about chemical engineering.
+We believed that with an interactive environment like Octave,
+most students would be able to pick up the basics quickly,
+and begin using it confidently in just a few hours.
+
+Full-time development began in the Spring of 1992.
+The first alpha release was January 4, 1993, and version 1.0 was released
+February 17, 1994.
+Since then, Octave has been through several major revisions,
+is included with [Debian GNU/Linux](https://www.debian.org/),
+[openSUSE](https://www.opensuse.org/),
+and many other GNU/Linux distributions.
+Octave was reviewed in the in the July, 1997 issue of the
+[Linux Journal](http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1225).
+
+Clearly,
+Octave is now much more than just another courseware package with limited
+utility beyond the classroom.
+Although our initial goals were somewhat vague,
+we knew that we wanted to create something that would enable students to solve
+realistic problems,
+and that they could use for many things other than chemical reactor design
+problems.
+Today, thousands of people worldwide are using Octave in teaching,
+research, and commercial applications.
+
+Just about everyone thinks that the name Octave has something to do with music,
+but it is actually the name of one of the author's former professor
+[Octave Levenspiel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_Levenspiel)
+who wrote a famous textbook on chemical reaction engineering,
+and who was also well known for his ability to do quick "back of the envelope"
+calculations.
+We hope that this software will make it possible for many people to do more
+ambitious computations just as easily.
+
+Everyone is encouraged to share this software with others under the terms of
+the [GNU General Public License (GPL)][GPL].
+You are also encouraged to help make Octave more useful by writing and
+contributing additional functions for it,
+and by reporting any problems you may have.
+
+[GPL]: https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html