From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Fri Jun 4 18:11:56 1999 Subject: Re: Function calls (Was: Save a plot to .ps) From: Mike Miller To: David Doolin cc: "John W. Eaton" , Daniel Heiserer , "help-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu" Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 18:09:53 -0500 (CDT) On Fri, 4 Jun 1999, David Doolin wrote: > Compatibility has been very useful for me. It has allowed me to > actually *use* octave instead of matlab (long story). Compatibility is important. I wouldn't have decided to work with Octave if it didn't have very MATLABish behavior. > The point of `free software' is contentious at best. And matlab, in > all its gruesome, buggy glory is the metric by which octave will > _forever_ be judged. This is a direct result of *choosing* to use > matlab syntax. Not necessarily _forever_. Software products come and go and so do software companies. We really don't know where MATLAB will be in 20 years. But the more easily MATLAB users can move their work to Octave, the easier it will be for Octave to take market share from MATLAB and eventually to dominate. Once you rule, you set the standards. If you veer too sharply away from MATLAB at an early stage, it could hurt you. Someday MATLAB might be remembered as an early precursor to Octave just as visicalc was to 1-2-3 and 1-2-3 was (some would say) to Excel. > Anyway good luck. If my opinion counted, which I know it certainly > does not, matlab compatibility should be all or nothing. Half-assing > it hurts more than helps. I don't quite agree here. Optimally, I think you should be very clear about exactly which features of MATLAB are not supported or are different in Octave, but I think differences are good if they are improvements. It would also help if users could easily convert MATLAB code to Octave. Regards, Mike -- Michael B. Miller, M.S., Ph.D., M.P.E. Department of Psychology 210 McAlester Hall University of Missouri--Columbia Columbia, MO 65211 Phone: (573) 882-5671 Fax: (573) 882-7710 e-mail: mbmiller at taxa dot psyc dot missouri dot edu web: http://taxa.psyc.missouri.edu/~mbmiller/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL. To ensure that development continues, see www.che.wisc.edu/octave/giftform.html Instructions for unsubscribing: www.che.wisc.edu/octave/archive.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------