From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Thu Dec 14 12:37:31 2000 Subject: Re: some thoughts about the future of Octave From: SZABO Sandor To: help-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 19:37:25 +0100 courtois at ensia dot inra dot fr wrote: > Hi All, > > I work both as a researcher and a teacher and I am an everyday user... > but I am not a power user. > > First, thanx to jwe for bringing up this marvelous tool that is called > "Octave". We are currently using it in replacement of Matlab for > teaching in our college of Engineering. It has 2 advantages: > -we will be able to get rid of our problematic NT server that > crashes so often for unknown reasons > -it costs much less (linux+octave / NT+Matlab in a client > /server environment). > -it is cross-platform : UX + Win > -it allows us to give a copy of octave for free to the students > for their future work (Matlab would be so expensive) > > This can work mainly because Octave is close to be compatible with > Matlab... the "de-facto" standard. .... > The close compatibility is a major advantage that led > us to choose Octave. ... > As far as I know, Scilab is the only one that propose a matlab2scilab > converter (written in Scilab language). Why Octave wouldn't offer the > same ? > > Clearly, I understand jwe but I confirm our interest (both for research > and education) in Octave being as close as possible to Matlab. ... > there are still > missing features that are quite annoying : ... > -plot (they don't look very nice, more like a raw output) > -multiplot (same + problems to print them) > -documentation is still very poor > -no easy doc to help understand how to make octfiles > > I have take a look at vtk and it looks so great ! Actually I am using > epstk which is very nice even if it can't do everything we can ask. > > the command line interface is quite enough for us and we don't care for > any other interface. We would rather prefer to see more work on the > plotting library and the documentation. > > I personnally think that a short documention explaning very precisely > (with examples, like a canvas) how to create standardized re-usable > mfiles to contribute to the community would be very important. ... > I am > just wondering how to make it standard (help, parameters, manual) to > offer it as a contribution. I am afraid that if I release it as it, it > won't be understandable by others. > > I feel that there is a gap between some of us who are very into Octave > (Kienzle, Grossman...) and people like me who are not mastering Octave > so well but are able to give contributions as well, provided that we are > given more help (documentation mainly). > > If I would give priorities in the TODO List it would be: > 1- write a canvas and a manual for adding new mfiles > 2- add a fmins function > 3- improve the website and documentation > 4- start a project for an automatic convertir Matlab2Octave > 5- change gnuplot for something else > > I think these "users comments" can contribute to the debate and assure > again all of the OCtave developpers our sincere congratulations for > their wonderful work. > > -- > > Francis > > ========================================================================= > Dr. Francis COURTOIS I ENSIA - INRA > I 1, avenue des Olympiades > Food Process Control Lab. I 91744 MASSY Cedex > Food Engineering Department I FRANCE > -----------------------------------I Tel : (+33) (0) 1 69 93 51 29 > mailto:courtois at ensia dot inra dot fr I Fax : (+33) (0) 1 69 93 51 85 > http://ensia.inra.fr/~courtois I Cell: (+33) (0) 6 84 13 73 92 > ========================================================================== > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL. > > Octave's home on the web: http://www.octave.org > How to fund new projects: http://www.octave.org/funding.html > Subscription information: http://www.octave.org/archive.html > ------------------------------------------------------------- I agree with you. Well, - an up-to-date documentation is the first thing TODO. Before any new development. It is very boring to browse the help or usage in the programs. - GUI. I'm not an expert but found the Gmath. About it: A gnome mathematical GUI designed to be a central tool where you can launch various other existing mathematical tools. It now supports Numerical Python Session, and more soon. ... For now, GmatH is nothing more than a nice interface to all those tools. ...started adding data visualization tools. These are very early (alpha) tools. GmatH supports only 2D function plotting. - Matlab compatibility. Maple is Mathematica compatible? I think we have to go on our own way. To write a converter is an other task. Best regards. Sandor Szabo ------------------------------------------------------------- Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL. Octave's home on the web: http://www.octave.org How to fund new projects: http://www.octave.org/funding.html Subscription information: http://www.octave.org/archive.html -------------------------------------------------------------