Re: Complete bewildered newbie question

[Henry F. Mollet]

Replies inserted and corrections to my replies are most welcome.
Henry

on 3/24/04 4:25 AM, David Nicholls at address@hidden wrote:

> (a Windows user, of course)
> I have several questions stemming from a desire to run a simple Matlab
> program (sent to me by a friend) in Octave.  I'm a bit reluctant to ask
> what may be "RT-M" questions, but I've looked around it, and searched
> the newsgroup archive for two years back without any enlightenment.  So
> here goes:
> 
> I have installed the Sourceforge complete binary v 2.1.50
> (octave-2.1.50a-inst.exe) under Windows 2K. It appears to have installed OK.
> 
> Q.1  When I type (in the rxvt window) the command 'help -i anything' I
> get the message:
> 'info: /opt/octave/info/octave.info: No such file or directory
> help: sorry, `anything' is not indexed in the manual'
> where 'anything' is any one of the Octave commands
> Is this supposed to happen, or if not, is it a bug, or do I need to
> change one of the config files?  If I just type 'help' (with 'more'
> set!) I get a tone of stuff.
> 

octave:2> help -i anything
info: /Users/mollet/.info: No such file or directory
no index entries found for `anything'
help: sorry, `anything' is not indexed in the manual
% because it is *not* in the manual
% Now trying something that should be in the manual:
octave:1> help -i plot
info: /Users/mollet/.info: No such file or directory
File: octave.info,  Node: Two-Dimensional Plotting,  Next: Specialized
Two-Dime\
nsional Plots,  Up: Plotting
Two-Dimensional Plotting
========================
cut

> Q.2  Even stupider, from within the rxvt window, how do I run - or
> attempt to run - the .m Matlab file?  I can do this in a DOS window
> using 'octave filename.m -qf' (and it gives a series of errors
> suggesting it has read the file - a start at least) but I am at a loss
> to know how to run  the same file from the rxvt window.

I don't know what a rxvt window is but a filename.m octave file is being run
by typing the "filename" at the octave prompt. If the  .m file is a script
and if some datafile has been loaded then the instructions in the script are
carried out line by line (using the datafile). If the .m file is function
then it it probably requires in input parameters and you would use filename
(testdata) at the octave prompt.

> 
> Q.3 When I ran the install program, as it finished, it asked for details
> of my preferred editor, so I entered
> C:\Program Files\NoteTab Pro\NoteTab.exe
> However when I type 'edit "filename.m"' in the rxvt window, I get the
> message 'C/Program: not found' which suggests to me the the entry in the
> file start_octave.sh is wrong.  What should the line starting 'export
> EDITOR=' have in it?  Or is the idiot Windows file naming system
> incompatible?  If I double click on the .m file in Windows Explorer, it
> opens in notepad.

I believe that your favorite editor has little to with Octave, is a separate
application, and therefore is opened as any other application is opened. If
you are working on a script, you can test each line at the octave prompt to
check if it works and then paste into your editor. At the end you save the
sript as "filename.m" and then it can be used at the octave prompt using
"filename".

You can use the vi editor, which should be available at the shell prompt but
it's a pain to use. However, it has line numbers, which other editors that I
use on a Mac (TextEdit, BBEdit, or even ProjectBuilder) unfortunately don't
have.
> 
> Any advice appreciated.  (I am at the bottom of what looks like a long
> steep learning curve.)
> 
> DN, Canberra, Oz



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