[Texmacs-dev] Octave plugin status

[David E. Miller]

Octave plugin status. The TeXmacs website says:

"The current Windows version of TeXmacs only supports a reduced set of 
plug-ins. As of version 1.0.7.18, Maxima, Mathemagix, Octave, Pari and 
Python should run out of the box after a standard installation."

From what I have experienced the Octave plugin is defective. This is 
the case for Linux, OS X and MS Windows. It is the plugin and not the 
operating systems. Any reference to an Octave expression using the 
Octave plugin from TeXmacs that involves a variable returns "texmacs" 
and not the expected answer.  Expressions with numbers only are okay, 
but obviously this is not "running out of the box" as stated.

Also the phrase "standard installation" may be misleading. TeXmacs may 
have a standard installation using MS Windows, but it is a stretch to 
describe the installation of the MS Windows version of Octave as 
"standard" in any sense. The installation of Octave on MS Windows 
requires a  number of manual steps and configuration items before 
TeXmacs shows Octave as an available plugin. This includes modification 
of the PATH environment variable. After successfully jumping that hurdle 
(which is not documented anywhere), the plugin will start an Octave 
session that does not work normally with the same symptoms whether using 
GNU/Linux, OS X, or MS Windows:

octave> A = [1,2,3]
    texmacs

octave> 1+1
     2

octave> sqrt(2)
     1.4142

octave> a=sqrt(2)
     texmacs


David Miller