Re: Matlab references in docs; distinguishing between ML and Octave

[Philip Nienhuis]

bpabbott wrote
> On Mar 24, 2013, at 2:54 PM, Philip Nienhuis wrote:
> 
>> While perusing the Octave documentation about Java I noted several
>> references
>> to Matlab; one in particular about "how to distinguish between Octave and
>> Matlab".
>> 
>> 1. Is there a policy about mentioning ML in the Octave docs?
>> IMO it should be minimized to "only when unavoidable"; but because of
>> Octave's aim for ML compatibility, references to Matlab are all over the
>> place.
>> 
>> 2. What would be a good place in the doc for a description of how to
>> distinguish between ML and Octave? The Java section is too narrow-scoped. 
>> Dropping this info entirely or referring to the wiki seems a bit
>> inappropriate to me. I'd find it a bit double-hearted to aim to be
>> ML-compatible while mentioning nowhere how to differentiate between the
>> two
>> in scripts and m-file functions.
>> 
>> 3. A way to distinguish Octave and ML, that works in both, could be to
>> use
>> the "computer" function; I saw that ML and Octave return different
>> answers
>> for the first output arg ('win32' and "i686-pc-mingw32", resp.; when
>> called
>> with 'arch': 'win32' and "mingw32-i686", resp.).
>> I don't know what answers Matlab and Octave give on OSX, nor what ML
>> would
>> answer on Linux.
>> 
>> Philip
> 
> I think the easiest way to distinguish is to use the "ver" command.
> 
> "x = ver ()" returns a structure array with fields "Name", "Version",
> "Release", and "Date".  For Octave x(1).Name equals "Octave", and for
> Matlab x(1).Name equals "Matlab".

Good hint.

In Octave ver() gives a fairly big struct array, depending on installed
packages. (In ML having many toolboxes is at least financially discouraged).
The call to ver() does take a bit of time:

Octave (MinGW, MXE cross-compiled, 14 pkgs installed)
======
octave.exe:3> tic; for ii=1:100; x=computer('arch');end; toc
Elapsed time is 0.0312469 seconds.
octave.exe:4> tic; for ii=1:100; x=ver();a=x(1);end; toc
Elapsed time is 6.14003 seconds.

Matlab r2013a prerelease
======
>> tic; for ii=1:100; x=computer('arch');end;toc
Elapsed time is 0.000609 seconds.
>> tic; for ii=1:100; x=ver();a = x(1);end;toc
Elapsed time is 0.386005 seconds.

... So the results should be cached somewhere to avoid long delays when
called repeatedly from different functions/scripts. Preferrably in some
"isoctave"-like function.

Anyway, where in the docs would be an appropriate place for describing a
trick like this?

Philip




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