From help-request at octave dot org Sat Mar 18 20:51:06 2006 Subject: Re: Octave in Universities From: "Henry F. Mollet" To: Michael Creel , CC: "John W. Eaton" , , Octave_post Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 18:47:12 -0800 I agree with M. I spent more than a day over a period of years trying to learn 'vi' but I just don't get it. I can use it but everything takes me about 10 x as long as it should. I humbly suggest that we should not have to use 'vi' to be able to use octave. I anticipate that Emacs will be just as difficult but I haven't tried it. Smultron (little strawberry in Swedish) for Mac is an editor whose flavor I like and that I was able to use without a learning curve. Printing a plot using AquaTerm for Mac with pdf or eps options is the way one should be able to do it in my opinion (without any hassle). Henry on 3/17/06 10:28 AM, Michael Creel at michael dot creel at uab dot es wrote: > > > Steve C. Thompson wrote: > >> >> [soap box on] >> >> At one time, I used Matlab's GUI; and, yeah, it had >> some features that were useful. I now use X windows >> with multiple virtual desktops, Vim, terminal emulators >> (Konsole), and so forth. In my view, the features >> gained with this later approach largely outweigh the >> features lost by ditching Matlab's GUI. So my message >> to anyone who is hung up on Matlab's GUI is that there >> is a much bigger world of great tools available. With >> a little work, the return on investment is significant. >> >> Step 1: learn how to use *vi* or Emacs >> Step 2: learn how to use X windows, virtual desktops >> Step 3: use GNU Octave >> >> Of course, these steps are done in parallel and the >> enjoyable process is continuous, never ending! >> >> [soap box off] >> > > Looking at it from a newbie's point of view, you're asking them to do > the most painful, steepest learning curve, less obviously productive > stuff first, and the intrinsically interesting not-too difficult stuff > last. Also, at a university, the potential users are mostly undergrad > students who were born after the DOS prompt was starting to fade into > the past. Making Octave work with a GUI, and making it really easy to > plot and print graphs will help a lot in getting used. I hate to say it, > but making it work with windows will have a bigger effect that any other > factor. I'm constantly amazed with the trouble windows users will put up > with, rather than invest in a day learning how to use KDE. > M. > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 > ------------------------------------------------------------- > ------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------