4/25/16
I think it is important to agree on the purpose of the octave.pdf file. In
its current implementation it is the Language Reference Manual (LRM) for
Octave. This means it needs to cover every aspect of the core language,
and that necessarily makes it long. Furthermore, because it is a
reference, not an introduction or tutorial, the language is often terse.
This is probably just as well because more natural language would only make
the LRM yet longer.
Personally, I don't start with the Table of Contents and then read a
chapter of the manual. Instead, I start with the concept index or the
function index which then takes me directly through hyperlinks to the area
that I'm interested in.
--Rik