RE: Book project

[Jake]

Well the fact of the matter is, there are literally hundreds if not
thousands of MATLAB books.  If Octave has almost the same exact syntax and
functions as MATLAB, then why would anyone want to read this book?  That's
why I think it should cover maybe a little bit of the basics, but mainly
focus on what Octave can do that MATLAB can't. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Fotios Kasolis [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 9:09 AM
To: Jake
Cc: address@hidden
Subject: Re: Book project


On Jun 10, 2010, at 2:54 PM, Jake wrote:

> It'd have to focus on things that Octave can do above and beyond MATLAB. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fotios Kasolis [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 8:35 AM
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Book project
> 
> We could initialize a book project that will contain contributions 
> from users edited by a head (for instance John). So the final result 
> should be a multidisciplinary case studies book that will motivate 
> both lecturers and students to use Octave.
> 
> What do you think about this or sth similar?
> 
> /Fotios
> 

I was thinking something like a good educational (and/or research) book with
themes contributed by all of us (for example it could be titled Octave and
applications). We should focus on making a good book based on a good
software, well written material and code, attractive layout, etc. To be
honest i think that being motivated by the holy war between Octave and
Matlab will not help us evolve (personal opinion!). We should just ignore
them (up to a point) and do stuff to improve Octave, its Documentation, its
Esthetics and everything that is relevant, like providing material. I do not
need to prove in whatever i do that Octave is better than Matlab, I use it
because I like it, that is all.