octave-lyh: doc/faq/FAQ.texi comparison

comparison doc/faq/FAQ.texi @ 2597:106ae3df29f5

[project @ 1996-12-17 17:48:01 by jwe]

author	jwe
date	Tue, 17 Dec 1996 17:48:02 +0000
parents	b1a56412c385
children	20704e7e5e79

comparison

equal deleted inserted replaced

-:7020b79afd9c
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 @setchapternewpage off
 @titlepage
 @title Octave FAQ
 @subtitle Frequently asked questions about Octave
-@subtitle December 1, 1994
+@subtitle December 14, 1996
 @sp 1
 @author John W. Eaton
 @page
 @end titlepage
 @cindex FAQ for Octave, latest version
 @end ifinfo
 This is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) for Octave users.
-Some information in this FAQ was developed for earlier versions of
+Some information in this FAQ was written for earlier versions of
 Octave and may now be obsolete.
 I'm looking for new questions (@emph{with} answers), better answers,
 or both.  Please send suggestions to bug-octave@@bevo.che.wisc.edu.
 If you have general questions about Octave, or need help for something
-that is not covered by the FAQ, please use the
+that is not covered by the Octave manual or the FAQ, please use the
 help-octave@@bevo.che.wisc.edu mailing list.
 This FAQ is intended to supplement, not replace, the Octave manual.
-Before posting a question to the hlpe-octave mailing list, you should
+Before posting a question to the help-octave mailing list, you should
 first check to see if the topic is covered in the manual.
 @menu
 * What is Octave?::
-* Version 1.1.0::
+* Version 2.0::
 * Octave Features::
 * Documentation::
 * Getting Octave::
 * Installation::
 * Common problems::
 * Bug reports::
 * MATLAB compatibility::
 * Index::
 @end menu
-@node What is Octave?, Version 1.1.0, Top, Top
+@node What is Octave?, Version 2.0, Top, Top
 @chapter What is Octave?
 Octave is a high-level interactive language, primarily intended for
 numerical computations that is mostly compatible with
 @sc{Matlab}.@footnote{@sc{Matlab} is a registered trademark of The MathWorks,
 Octave is also free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
 Free Software Foundation.
-@node Version 1.1.0, Octave Features, What is Octave?, Top
+@node Version 2.0, Octave Features, What is Octave?, Top
-@chapter What's new in version 1.1.0 of Octave
+@chapter What's new in version 2.0 of Octave
-The long-awaited version 1.1.0 of Octave has now been released.  Many
+The long-awaited version 2.0 of Octave has now been released.  Many
 bugs have been fixed and lots of new features added.  Octave is now much
 more compatible with @sc{Matlab}.
-Version 1.1.0 fixes many bugs, but as with any ``x.y.0'' release there
+Version 2.0 fixes many bugs, but as with any ``x.y.0'' release there
-will be a few glitches.  You can expect a 1.1.1 shortly.  You can help
+will be a few glitches.  There will probably be a 2.0.1 release to fix
-contribute to the quality of Octave by trying it out and submitting bug
+most of these problems.  You can help contribute to the quality of
-reports where you find them.
+Octave by using it and submitting bug reports for the problems you
+encounter.
 A list of user-visible changes in recent versions of Octave may be found
 in the file NEWS, distributed in both source and binary releases of
 Octave.
-@node Octave Features, Documentation, Version 1.1.0, Top
+@node Octave Features, Documentation, Version 2.0, Top
 @chapter What features are unique to Octave?
 @menu
 * Command and variable name completion::
 * Command history::
 @itemize @bullet
 @item Elements of structures can be of any value type.
 @example
+@group
 octave:1> x.a = 1; x.b = [1, 2; 3, 4]; x.c = "string";
 octave:2> x.a
 x.a = 1
 octave:3> x.b
 x.b =
 1  2
 3  4
 octave:4> x.c
 x.c = string
+@end group
 @end example
 @item Structures may be copied.
 @example
+@group
 octave:1> y = x
 y =
+@{
-<structure: a b c>
+a = 1
+b =
+1  2
+3  4
+c = string
+s =
+0.00000  0.00000  0.00000
+0.00000  5.46499  0.00000
+0.00000  0.00000  0.36597
+u =
+-0.40455  -0.91451
+-0.91451   0.40455
+v =
+-0.57605   0.81742
+-0.81742  -0.57605
+@}
+@end group
 @end example
 @item Structure elements may reference other structures.
 @example
+@group
 octave:1> x.b.d = 3
 x.b.d = 3
 octave:2> x.b
-x.b =
+ans =
+@{
-<structure: d>
+d = 3
+@}
 octave:3> x.b.d
-x.b.d = 3
+ans = 3
+@end group
 @end example
 @item Functions can return structures.
 @example
+@group
 octave:1> function y = f (x)
 > y.re = real (x);
 > y.im = imag (x);
 > endfunction
 octave:2> f (rand + rand*I);
 ans =
+@{
-<structure: im re>
+im = 0.18033
+re = 0.19069
-octave:3> ans.im, ans.re
+@}
-ans.im = 0.93411
+@end group
-ans.re = 0.56234
 @end example
 @item Function return lists can include structure elements, and they may
 be indexed like any other variable.
 @example
-octave:1> [x.u, x.s(2:3,2:3), x.v] = svd ([1, 2; 3, 4])
+@group
-x.u =
+octave:1> [x.u, x.s(2:3,2:3), x.v] = svd ([1, 2; 3, 4]);
+octave:2> x
--0.40455  -0.91451
--0.91451   0.40455
-x.s =
-0.00000  0.00000  0.00000
-0.00000  5.46499  0.00000
-0.00000  0.00000  0.36597
-x.v =
--0.57605   0.81742
--0.81742  -0.57605
-octave:8> x
 x =
+@{
-<structure: s u v>
+s =
+0.00000  0.00000  0.00000
+0.00000  5.46499  0.00000
+0.00000  0.00000  0.36597
+u =
+-0.40455  -0.91451
+-0.91451   0.40455
+v =
+-0.57605   0.81742
+-0.81742  -0.57605
+@}
+@end group
 @end example
 @item You can also use the function @code{is_struct} to determine
 whether a given value is a data structure.  For example
 Here is an example of a function that uses the new syntax to print a
 header followed by an unspecified number of values:
 @example
+@group
 function foo (heading, ...)
 disp (heading);
 va_start ();
 while (--nargin)
 disp (va_arg ());
 endwhile
 endfunction
+@end group
 @end example
 Calling @code{va_start()} positions an internal pointer to the first
 unnamed argument and allows you to cycle through the arguments more than
 once.  It is not necessary to call @code{va_start()} if you do not plan
 Here is an example of a function that uses the new syntax to produce
 @samp{N} values:
 @example
+@group
 function [...] = foo (n)
 for i = 1:n
 vr_val (i);
 endfor
 endfunction
+@end group
 @end example
 @node Built-in ODE and DAE solvers,  , Variable-length return lists, Octave Features
 @section Built-in ODE and DAE solvers
 @cindex DASSL
 @cindex LSODE
-Octave includes LSODE and DASSL for solving systems of stiff
+Octave includes LSODE and DASSL for solving systems of stiff ordinary
 differential and differential-algebraic equations.  These functions are
 built in to the interpreter.
 @node Documentation, Getting Octave, Octave Features, Top
 @chapter What documentation exists for Octave?
 Because the Octave manual is written using Texinfo, the complete text of
 the Octave manual is also available on line using the GNU Info system
 via the GNU Emacs, info, or xinfo programs, or by using the @samp{help -i}
 command to start the GNU info browser directly from the Octave prompt.
-It is also possible to use WWW browsers such as Mosaic to read the
+It is also possible to use your favorite WWW browser to read the Octave
-Octave manual (or any other Info file) by using Roar Smith's info2www
+manual (or any other Info file) by using Roar Smith's info2www program
-program to convert GNU Info files to HTML.  The source for info2www is
+to convert GNU Info files to HTML.  The source for info2www is available
-available via anonymous ftp from ftp.che.wisc.edu in the directory
+from @url{ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/www}.
-@file{/pub/www}.
 @node Getting Octave, Installation, Documentation, Top
 @chapter Obtaining Source Code
 @cindex Source code
 @node latest versions,  , Octave for other platforms, Getting Octave
 @section What is the latest version of Octave
 @cindex Octave, version date
-The latest version of Octave is 1.1.0, released January 1995.
+The latest version of Octave is 2.0, released December 1996.
 @node Installation, Common problems, Getting Octave, Top
 @chapter Installation Issues and Problems
 @cindex Octave, building
 If you would like to join the discussion and receive all messages sent
 to the list, please send a short note to
 @example
+@group
 help-octave-request@@bevo.che.wisc.edu
 ^^^^^^^
+@end group
 @end example
 @strong{Please do not} send requests to be added or removed from the the
 mailing list, or other administrative trivia to the list itself.
 @item
 Unknown differences.
 @end enumerate
 The first category, irrelevant differences, do not affect computations
-and most likely do not affect the execution of function files.  Some
+and most likely do not affect the execution of function files.
-examples are:
-When typing @samp{help function}, Octave displays the first set of
-comment lines @emph{after} the function declaration, but @sc{Matlab}
-the first set of comment lines starting from the beginning of the file.
 The differences of the second category are usually because the authors
 of Octave decided on a better (subjective) implementation that the way
 @sc{Matlab} does it, and so introduced ``user preference variables'' so that
 you can customize Octave's behavior to be either @sc{Matlab}-compatible or
 to use Octave's new features.  To make Octave more @sc{Matlab}-compatible,
-put the following statements in your @file{~/.octaverc} file.  This is a
+put the following statements in your @file{~/.octaverc} file, or use the
-partial list of the user preference variables that should be changed to
+command line option @samp{--traditional}, which implies all of these
-get @sc{Matlab}-compatible behavior.  (It is partial because not all the
+settings.  Note that this list may not be complete, because some new
-differences are currently known, and when they become known, this
+variables may have been introduced since this document was last updated.
-document lags behind.)
+@example
-@example
+@group
-PS1 = '>> ';
+PS1 = ">> ";
-PS2 = '';
+PS2 = "";
-default_save_format = 'mat-binary';
+beep_on_error = 1;
-define_all_return_values = 'true';
+default_save_format = "mat-binary";
-do_fortran_indexing = 'true';
+define_all_return_values = 1;
-empty_list_elements_ok = 'true';
+do_fortran_indexing = 1;
-implicit_str_to_num_ok = 'true';
+empty_list_elements_ok = 1;
-ok_to_lose_imaginary_part = 'true';
+implicit_str_to_num_ok = 1;
-page_screen_output = 'false';
+ok_to_lose_imaginary_part = 1;
-prefer_column_vectors = 'false';
+page_screen_output = 0;
-prefer_zero_one_indexing = 'true';
+prefer_column_vectors = 0;
-print_empty_dimensions = 'false';
+prefer_zero_one_indexing = 1;
-treat_neg_dim_as_zero = 'true';
+print_empty_dimensions = 0;
-warn_function_name_clash = 'false';
+treat_neg_dim_as_zero = 1;
-whitespace_in_literal_matrix = 'traditional';
+warn_function_name_clash = 0;
+whitespace_in_literal_matrix = "traditional";
+@end group
 @end example
 Some other known differences are:
 @itemize @bullet
-@item
-String subscripting is not yet implemented in Octave.  For example,
-@example
-a = 'reknob';
-a([6,1,5,3,2,4])
-@end example
-@noindent
-returns the string @samp{broken} in @sc{Matlab}, but generates an error in
-Octave.  A future release of Octave will fix this along with providing
-a much more complete and powerful set of functions for manipulating strings.
 @item
 The Octave plotting functions are mostly compatible with the ones from
 @sc{Matlab} 3.x, but not from @sc{Matlab} 4.x.
-@item
-The C-style I/O functions are not completely compatible.  It would be
-useful for someone to explore the differences so that they might be
-fixed, or at least noted in the manual.
 @end itemize
 The third category of differences is (hopefully) shrinking.  If you find
 a difference between Octave behavior and @sc{Matlab}, then you should send a
 description of this difference (with code illustrating the difference,

Mercurial > hg > octave-lyh

comparison doc/faq/FAQ.texi @ 2597:106ae3df29f5