This is Info file octave, produced by Makeinfo-1.64 from the input file octave.tex. START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * Octave: (octave). Interactive language for numerical computations. END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY Copyright (C) 1996, 1997 John W. Eaton. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions. File: octave, Node: Sending Patches, Next: Service, Prev: Bug Reporting, Up: Trouble Sending Patches for Octave ========================== If you would like to write bug fixes or improvements for Octave, that is very helpful. When you send your changes, please follow these guidelines to avoid causing extra work for us in studying the patches. If you don't follow these guidelines, your information might still be useful, but using it will take extra work. Maintaining Octave is a lot of work in the best of circumstances, and we can't keep up unless you do your best to help. * Send an explanation with your changes of what problem they fix or what improvement they bring about. For a bug fix, just include a copy of the bug report, and explain why the change fixes the bug. * Always include a proper bug report for the problem you think you have fixed. We need to convince ourselves that the change is right before installing it. Even if it is right, we might have trouble judging it if we don't have a way to reproduce the problem. * Include all the comments that are appropriate to help people reading the source in the future understand why this change was needed. * Don't mix together changes made for different reasons. Send them *individually*. If you make two changes for separate reasons, then we might not want to install them both. We might want to install just one. * Use `diff -c' to make your diffs. Diffs without context are hard for us to install reliably. More than that, they make it hard for us to study the diffs to decide whether we want to install them. Unidiff format is better than contextless diffs, but not as easy to read as `-c' format. If you have GNU diff, use `diff -cp', which shows the name of the function that each change occurs in. * Write the change log entries for your changes. Read the `ChangeLog' file to see what sorts of information to put in, and to learn the style that we use. The purpose of the change log is to show people where to find what was changed. So you need to be specific about what functions you changed; in large functions, it's often helpful to indicate where within the function the change was made. On the other hand, once you have shown people where to find the change, you need not explain its purpose. Thus, if you add a new function, all you need to say about it is that it is new. If you feel that the purpose needs explaining, it probably does--but the explanation will be much more useful if you put it in comments in the code. If you would like your name to appear in the header line for who made the change, send us the header line. File: octave, Node: Service, Prev: Sending Patches, Up: Trouble How To Get Help with Octave =========================== The mailing list (help-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu) exists for the discussion of matters related to using and installing Octave. If would like to join the discussion, please send a short note to (help-octave*-request*@bevo.che.wisc.edu). *Please do not* send requests to be added or removed from the the mailing list, or other administrative trivia to the list itself. If you think you have found a bug in the installation procedure, however, you should send a complete bug report for the problem to (bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu). *Note Bug Reporting:: for information that will help you to submit a useful report. File: octave, Node: Installation, Next: Emacs, Prev: Trouble, Up: Top Installing Octave ***************** Here is the procedure for installing Octave from scratch on a Unix system. For instructions on how to install the binary distributions of Octave, see *Note Binary Distributions::. * Run the shell script `configure'. This will determine the features your system has (or doesn't have) and create a file named `Makefile' from each of the files named `Makefile.in'. Here is a summary of the configure options that are most frequently used when building Octave: `--prefix=PREFIX' Install Octave in subdirectories below PREFIX. The default value of PREFIX is `/usr/local'. `--srcdir=DIR' Look for Octave sources in the directory DIR. `--with-f2c' Use `f2c' even if a Fortran compiler is available. `--with-g77' Use `g77' to compile Fortran code. `--enable-shared' Create shared libraries. If you are planning to use `--enable-lite-kernelel' or the dynamic loading features, you will probably want to use this option. It will make your `.oct' files much smaller and on some systems it may be necessary to build shared libraries in order to use dynamically linked functions. You may also want to build a shared version of `libg++', if your system doesn't already have one. Note that a patch is needed to build shared versions of version 2.7.2 of `libg++' and `libstdc++' on the HP-PA architecture. You can find the patch at (ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/g++/libg++-2.7.2-hppa-gcc-fix). `--enable-dl' Use `dlopen' and friends to make Octave capable of dynamically linking externally compiled functions. This only works on systems that actually have these functions. If you plan on using this feature, you should probably also use `--enable-shared' to reduce the size of your `.oct' files. `--enable-shl' Use `shl_load' and friends to make Octave capable of dynamically linking externally compiled functions. This only works on systems that actually have these functions (only HP-UX systems). If you plan on using this feature, you should probably also use `--enable-shared' to reduce the size of your `.oct' files. `--enable-lite-kernel' Compile smaller kernel. This currently requires the dynamic linking functions `dlopen' or `shl_load' and friends so that Octave can load functions at run time that are not loaded at compile time. `--help' Print a summary of the options recognized by the configure script. See the file `INSTALL' for more information about the command line options used by configure. That file also contains instructions for compiling in a directory other than where the source is located. * Run make. You will need a recent version of GNU Make. Modifying Octave's makefiles to work with other make programs is probably not worth your time. We recommend you get and compile GNU Make instead. For plotting, you will need to have gnuplot installed on your system. Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive function plotting program. Gnuplot is copyrighted, but freely distributable. The `gnu' in gnuplot is a coincidence--it is not related to the GNU project or the FSF in any but the most peripheral sense. For version 2.0.5, you must have the GNU C++ compiler (`gcc') version 2.7.2 or later to compile Octave. You will also need version 2.7.1 or 2.7.2 of the GNU C++ class library (`libg++'). If you plan to modify the parser you will also need GNU `bison' and `flex'. If you modify the documentation, you will need GNU Texinfo, along with the patch for the `makeinfo' program that is distributed with Octave. GNU Make, `gcc', and `libg++', `gnuplot', `bison', `flex', and Texinfo are all available from many anonymous ftp archives. The primary site is (prep.ai.mit.edu), but it is often very busy. A list of sites that mirror the software on `prep' is available by anonymous ftp from (ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FTP), or by fingering (fsf@prep.ai.mit.edu). If you don't have a Fortran compiler, or if your Fortran compiler doesn't work like the traditional Unix f77, you will need to have the Fortran to C translator `f2c'. You can get `f2c' from any number of anonymous ftp archives. The most recent version of `f2c' is always available from (netlib.att.com). On an otherwise idle Pentium 133 running Linux, it will take somewhere between 1-1/2 to 3 hours to compile everything, depending on whether you are building shared libraries. You will need about 100 megabytes of disk storage to work with (considerably less if you don't compile with debugging symbols). To do that, use the command make CFLAGS=-O CXXFLAGS=-O LDFLAGS= instead of just `make'. * If you encounter errors while compiling Octave, first check the list of known problems below to see if there is a workaround or solution for your problem. If not, see *Note Trouble::, for information about how to report bugs. * Once you have successfully compiled Octave, run `make install'. This will install a copy of octave, its libraries, and its documentation in the destination directory. As distributed, Octave is installed in the following directories. In the table below, PREFIX defaults to `/usr/local', VERSION stands for the current version number of the interpreter, and ARCH is the type of computer on which Octave is installed (for example, `i586-unknown-gnu'). `PREFIX/bin' Octave and other binaries that people will want to run directly. `PREFIX/lib' Libraries like libcruft.a and liboctave.a. `PREFIX/share' Architecture-independent data files. `PREFIX/include/octave' Include files distributed with Octave. `PREFIX/man/man1' Unix-style man pages describing Octave. `PREFIX/info' Info files describing Octave. `PREFIX/share/octave/VERSION/m' Function files distributed with Octave. This includes the Octave version, so that multiple versions of Octave may be installed at the same time. `PREFIX/lib/octave/VERSION/exec/ARCH' Executables to be run by Octave rather than the user. `PREFIX/lib/octave/VERSION/oct/ARCH' Object files that will be dynamically loaded. `PREFIX/share/octave/VERSION/imagelib' Image files that are distributed with Octave. * Menu: * Notes:: * Installation Problems:: * Binary Distributions:: File: octave, Node: Notes, Next: Installation Problems, Prev: Installation, Up: Installation Notes ===== * You must use the version of GNU Info distributed with Octave, because it includes some changes to allow Octave to search the indices of the info files. If you would like, you should be able to replace other copies of the Info browser that you have with the one distributed with Octave. Patches relative to a recent release of the GNU Info browser are included in the file `INFO.PATCH' in the Octave source distribution. This modification has been submitted to the GNU Info maintainer, and should appear in some future release. Once that happens, the GNU Info browser will no longer be distributed with Octave. File: octave, Node: Installation Problems, Next: Binary Distributions, Prev: Notes, Up: Installation Installation Problems ===================== This section contains a list of problems (and some apparent problems that don't really mean anything is wrong) that may show up during installation of Octave. * On some SCO systems, `info' fails to compile if `HAVE_TERMIOS_H' is defined int `config.h'. Simply removing the definition from `info/config.h' should allow it to compile. * If `configure' finds `dlopen', `dlsym', `dlclose', and `dlerror', but not the header file `dlfcn.h', you need to find the source for the header file and install it in the directory `usr/include'. This is reportedly a problem with Slackware 3.1. For Linux/GNU systems, the source for `dlfcn.h' is in the `ldso' package. * Building `.oct' files doesn't work. You should probably have a shared version of `libg++'. A patch is needed to build shared versions of version 2.7.2 of `libg++' and `libstdc++' on the HP-PA architecture. You can find the patch at (ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/g++/libg++-2.7.2-hppa-gcc-fix). * If you encounter errors like passing `void (*)()' as argument 2 of `octave_set_signal_handler(int, void (*)(int))' or warning: ANSI C++ prohibits conversion from `(int)' to `(...)' while compiling `sighandlers.cc', you may need to edit some files in the `gcc' include subdirectory to add proper prototypes for functions there. For example, Ultrix 4.2 needs proper declarations for the `signal' function and the `SIG_IGN' macro in the file `signal.h'. On some systems the `SIG_IGN' macro is defined to be something like this: #define SIG_IGN (void (*)())1 when it should really be something like: #define SIG_IGN (void (*)(int))1 to match the prototype declaration for the `signal' function. This change should also be made for the `SIG_DFL' and `SIG_ERR' symbols. It may be necessary to change the definitions in `sys/signal.h' as well. The `gcc' `fixincludes' and `fixproto' scripts should probably fix these problems when `gcc' installs its modified set of header files, but I don't think that's been done yet. *You should not change the files in `/usr/include'*. You can find the `gcc' include directory tree by running the command gcc -print-libgcc-file-name The directory of `gcc' include files normally begins in the same directory that contains the file `libgcc.a'. * There is a bug with the `makeinfo' program that is distributed with Texinfo (through version 3.9) that causes the indices in Octave's on-line manual to be generated incorrectly. If you need to recreate the on-line documentation, you should get the `makeinfo' program that is distributed with texinfo-3.9 and apply the patch for `makeinfo' that is distributed with Octave. See the file `MAKEINFO.PATCH' for more details. * Some of the Fortran subroutines may fail to compile with older versions of the Sun Fortran compiler. If you get errors like zgemm.f: zgemm: warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree zgemm.f, line 245: warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree zgemm.f, line 304: warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree zgemm.f, line 327: warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree pcc_binval: missing IR_CONV in complex op make[2]: *** [zgemm.o] Error 1 when compiling the Fortran subroutines in the `libcruft' subdirectory, you should either upgrade your compiler or try compiling with optimization turned off. * On NeXT systems, if you get errors like this: /usr/tmp/cc007458.s:unknown:Undefined local symbol LBB7656 /usr/tmp/cc007458.s:unknown:Undefined local symbol LBE7656 when compiling `Array.cc' and `Matrix.cc', try recompiling these files without `-g'. * Some people have reported that calls to shell_cmd and the pager do not work on SunOS systems. This is apparently due to having `G_HAVE_SYS_WAIT' defined to be 0 instead of 1 when compiling `libg++'. * On NeXT systems, linking to `libsys_s.a' may fail to resolve the following functions _tcgetattr _tcsetattr _tcflow which are part of `libposix.a'. Unfortunately, linking Octave with `-posix' results in the following undefined symbols. .destructors_used .constructors_used _objc_msgSend _NXGetDefaultValue _NXRegisterDefaults .objc_class_name_NXStringTable .objc_class_name_NXBundle One kluge around this problem is to extract `termios.o' from `libposix.a', put it in Octave's `src' directory, and add it to the list of files to link together in the makefile. Suggestions for better ways to solve this problem are welcome! * If Octave crashes immediately with a floating point exception, it is likely that it is failing to initialize the IEEE floating point values for infinity and NaN. If your system actually does support IEEE arithmetic, you should be able to fix this problem by modifying the function `octave_ieee_init' in the file `lo-ieee.cc' to correctly initialize Octave's internal infinity and NaN variables. If your system does not support IEEE arithmetic but Octave's configure script incorrectly determined that it does, you can work around the problem by editing the file `config.h' to not define `HAVE_ISINF', `HAVE_FINITE', and `HAVE_ISNAN'. In any case, please report this as a bug since it might be possible to modify Octave's configuration script to automatically determine the proper thing to do. File: octave, Node: Binary Distributions, Prev: Installation Problems, Up: Installation Binary Distributions ==================== Although Octave is not very difficult to build from its sources, it is a relatively large program that does require a significant amount of time and disk space to compile and install. Because of this, many people want to be able to obtain binary distributions so they can start using Octave immediately, without having to bother with the details of compiling it first. This is understandable, so I try to maintain a current collection of binary distributions at (ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave/BINARIES). Please understand, however, that there is only a limited amount of time available to devote to making binaries, so binaries may not be immediately available for some platforms. (Please contact (bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu) if you are interested in helping make a binary distribution available for your system.) Also, binary distributions are limited to static binaries that do not support dynamic linking. For earlier versions of Octave, I tried distributing dynamically linked binaries but that proved to be too much trouble to support. If you want to have a copy of Octave that includes all the features described in this manual, you will have to build it from the sources yourself, or find someone else who is willing to do it for you. * Menu: * Installing Octave from a Binary Distribution:: * Creating a Binary Distribution:: File: octave, Node: Installing Octave from a Binary Distribution, Next: Creating a Binary Distribution, Prev: Binary Distributions, Up: Binary Distributions Installing Octave from a Binary Distribution -------------------------------------------- To install Octave from a binary distribution, execute the command sh ./install-octave in the top level directory of the distribution. Binary distributions are normally compiled assuming that Octave will be installed in the following subdirectories of `/usr/local'. `bin' Octave and other binaries that people will want to run directly. `lib' Shared libraries that Octave needs in order to run. These files are not included if you are installing a statically linked version of Octave. `man/man1' Unix-style man pages describing Octave. `info' Info files describing Octave. `share/octave/VERSION/m' Function files distributed with Octave. This includes the Octave version, so that multiple versions of Octave may be installed at the same time. `libexec/octave/VERSION/exec/ARCH' Executables to be run by Octave rather than the user. `libexec/octave/VERSION/oct/ARCH' Object files that will be dynamically loaded. `share/octave/VERSION/imagelib' Image files that are distributed with Octave. where VERSION stands for the current version number of the interpreter, and ARCH is the type of computer on which Octave is installed (for example, `i486-OS/2'). If these directories don't exist, the script `install-octave' will create them for you. The installation script also creates the following subdirectories of `/usr/local' that are intended for locally installed functions: `share/octave/site/m' Locally installed M-files. `libexec/octave/site/exec/ARCH' Locally installed binaries intended to be run by Octave rather than by the user. `libexec/octave/site/octave/ARCH' Local object files that will be dynamically linked. If it is not possible for you to install Octave in `/usr/local', or if you would prefer to install it in a different directory, you can specify the name of the top level directory as an argument to the `install-octave' script. For example: sh ./install-octave /some/other/directory will install Octave in subdirectories of the directory `/some/other/directory'. File: octave, Node: Creating a Binary Distribution, Prev: Installing Octave from a Binary Distribution, Up: Binary Distributions Creating a Binary Distribution ------------------------------ Here is how to build a binary distribution for others to use. If you want to make a binary distribution for your system available along with the Octave sources and binaries on (ftp.che.wisc.edu), please follow this procedure. For directions explaining how to make the binary available on the ftp site, please contact (bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu). * Unpack the source distribution: gunzip -c octave-2.0.5.tar.gz | tar xf - * Change your current directory to the top-level directory of the source distribution: cd octave-2.0.5 * Make the binary distribution: make binary-dist This will create a compressed tar file ready for distribution. It will contain statically linked binaries and have a name like `octave-2.0.5-i486-OS/2.tar.gz' File: octave, Node: Emacs, Next: Grammar, Prev: Installation, Up: Top Using Emacs With Octave *********************** The development of Octave code can greatly be facilitated using Emacs with Octave mode, a major mode for editing Octave files which can e.g. automatically indent the code, do some of the typing (with Abbrev mode) and show keywords, comments, strings, etc. in different faces (with Font-lock mode on devices that support it). It is also possible to run Octave from within Emacs, either by directly entering commands at the prompt in a buffer in Inferior Octave mode, or by interacting with Octave from within a file with Octave code. This is useful in particular for debugging Octave code. Finally, you can convince Octave to use the Emacs info reader for `help -i'. All functionality is provided by the Emacs Lisp package `octave'. This chapter describes how to set up and use this package. Please contact (Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at) if you have any questions or suggestions on using Emacs with Octave. * Menu: * Installing the Emacs Octave Package:: * Using Octave Mode:: * Running Octave From Within Emacs:: * Using the Emacs Info Reader for Octave:: File: octave, Node: Installing the Emacs Octave Package, Next: Using Octave Mode, Prev: Emacs, Up: Emacs Installing the Emacs Octave Package =================================== The Emacs package `octave' consists of `octave-mod.el', `octave-inf.el', and `octave-hlp.el'. These files, or better yet their byte-compiled versions, should be somewhere in your Emacs load-path. If you have GNU Emacs with a version number at least as high as 19.35, you are all set up, because the package is respectively will be part of GNU Emacs as of version 19.35. Otherwise, copy the three files from the `emacs' subdirectory of the Octave distribution to a place where Emacs can find them (this depends on how your Emacs was installed). Byte-compile them for speed if you want. File: octave, Node: Using Octave Mode, Next: Running Octave From Within Emacs, Prev: Installing the Emacs Octave Package, Up: Emacs Using Octave Mode ================= If you are lucky, your sysadmins have already arranged everything so that Emacs automatically goes into Octave mode whenever you visit an Octave code file as characterized by its extension `.m'. If not, proceed as follows. 1. To begin using Octave mode for all `.m' files you visit, add the following lines to a file loaded by Emacs at startup time, typically your `~/.emacs' file: (autoload 'octave-mode "octave-mod" nil t) (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.m$" . octave-mode) auto-mode-alist)) 2. Finally, to turn on the abbrevs, auto-fill and font-lock features automatically, also add the following lines to one of the Emacs startup files: (add-hook 'octave-mode-hook (lambda () (abbrev-mode 1) (auto-fill-mode 1) (if (eq window-system 'x) (font-lock-mode 1)))) See the Emacs manual for more information about how to customize Font-lock mode. In Octave mode, the following special Emacs commands can be used in addition to the standard Emacs commands. `C-h m' Describe the features of Octave mode. `LFD' Reindent the current Octave line, insert a newline and indent the new line (`octave-reindent-then-newline-and-indent'). An abbrev before point is expanded if `abbrev-mode' is non-`nil'. `TAB' Indents current Octave line based on its contents and on previous lines (`indent-according-to-mode'). Insert an "electric" semicolon (`octave-electric-semi'). If `octave-auto-newline' is non-`nil', typing a `;' automatically reindents the current line, inserts a newline and indents the new line. Start entering an abbreviation (`octave-abbrev-start'). If Abbrev mode is turned on, typing ``C-h' or ``?' lists all abbrevs. Any other key combination is executed normally. Note that all Octave abbrevs start with a grave accent. `M-LFD' Break line at point and insert continuation marker and alignment (`octave-split-line'). `M-TAB' Perform completion on Octave symbol preceding point, comparing that symbol against Octave's reserved words and builtin variables (`octave-complete-symbol'). `M-C-a' Move backward to the beginning of a function (`octave-beginning-of-defun'). With prefix argument N, do it that many times if N is positive; otherwise, move forward to the N-th following beginning of a function. `M-C-e' Move forward to the end of a function (`octave-end-of-defun'). With prefix argument N, do it that many times if N is positive; otherwise, move back to the N-th preceding end of a function. `M-C-h' Puts point at beginning and mark at the end of the current Octave function, i.e., the one containing point or following point (`octave-mark-defun'). `M-C-q' Properly indents the Octave function which contains point (`octave-indent-defun'). `M-;' If there is no comment already on this line, create a code-level comment (started by two comment characters) if the line is empty, or an in-line comment (started by one comment character) otherwise (`octave-indent-for-comment'). Point is left after the start of the comment which is properly aligned. `C-c ;' Puts the comment character `#' (more precisely, the string value of `octave-comment-start') at the beginning of every line in the region (`octave-comment-region'). With just `C-u' prefix argument, uncomment each line in the region. A numeric prefix argument N means use N comment characters. `C-c :' Uncomments every line in the region (`octave-uncomment-region'). `C-c C-p' Move one line of Octave code backward, skipping empty and comment lines (`octave-previous-code-line'). With numeric prefix argument N, move that many code lines backward (forward if N is negative). `C-c C-n' Move one line of Octave code forward, skipping empty and comment lines (`octave-next-code-line'). With numeric prefix argument N, move that many code lines forward (backward if N is negative). `C-c C-a' Move to the `real' beginning of the current line (`octave-beginning-of-line'). If point is in an empty or comment line, simply go to its beginning; otherwise, move backwards to the beginning of the first code line which is not inside a continuation statement, i.e., which does not follow a code line ending in `...' or `\', or is inside an open parenthesis list. `C-c C-e' Move to the `real' end of the current line (`octave-end-of-line'). If point is in a code line, move forward to the end of the first Octave code line which does not end in `...' or `\' or is inside an open parenthesis list. Otherwise, simply go to the end of the current line. `C-c M-C-n' Move forward across one balanced begin-end block of Octave code (`octave-forward-block'). With numeric prefix argument N, move forward across N such blocks (backward if N is negative). `C-c M-C-p' Move back across one balanced begin-end block of Octave code (`octave-backward-block'). With numeric prefix argument N, move backward across N such blocks (forward if N is negative). `C-c M-C-d' Move forward down one begin-end block level of Octave code (`octave-down-block'). With numeric prefix argument, do it that many times; a negative argument means move backward, but still go down one level. `C-c M-C-u' Move backward out of one begin-end block level of Octave code (`octave-backward-up-block'). With numeric prefix argument, do it that many times; a negative argument means move forward, but still to a less deep spot. `C-c M-C-h' Put point at the beginning of this block, mark at the end (`octave-mark-block'). The block marked is the one that contains point or follows point. `C-c ]' Close the current block on a separate line (`octave-close-block'). An error is signaled if no block to close is found. `C-c f' Insert a function skeleton, prompting for the function's name, arguments and return values which have to be entered without parens (`octave-insert-defun'). `C-c C-h' Search the function, operator and variable indices of all info files with documentation for Octave for entries (`octave-help'). If used interactively, the entry is prompted for with completion. If multiple matches are found, one can cycle through them using the standard `,' (`Info-index-next') command of the Info reader. The variable `octave-help-files' is a list of files to search through and defaults to `'("octave")'. If there is also an Octave Local Guide with corresponding info file, say, `octave-LG', you can have `octave-help' search both files by (setq octave-help-files '("octave" "octave-LG")) in one of your Emacs startup files. A common problem is that the RET key does *not* indent the line to where the new text should go after inserting the newline. This is because the standard Emacs convention is that RET (aka `C-m') just adds a newline, whereas LFD (aka `C-j') adds a newline and indents it. This is particularly inconvenient for users with keyboards which do not have a special LFD key at all; in such cases, it is typically more convenient to use RET as the LFD key (rather than typing `C-j'). You can make RET do this by adding (define-key octave-mode-map "\C-m" 'octave-reindent-then-newline-and-indent) to one of your Emacs startup files. Another, more generally applicable solution is (defun RET-behaves-as-LFD () (let ((x (key-binding "\C-j"))) (local-set-key "\C-m" x))) (add-hook 'octave-mode-hook 'RET-behaves-as-LFD) (this works for all modes by adding to the startup hooks, without having to know the particular binding of RET in that mode!). Similar considerations apply for using `M-RET' as `M-LFD'. As Barry A. Warsaw says in the documentation for his `cc-mode', "This is a very common question. `:-)' If you want this to be the default behavior, don't lobby me, lobby RMS!" The following variables can be used to customize Octave mode. `octave-auto-newline' Non-`nil' means auto-insert a newline and indent after semicolons are typed. The default value is `nil'. `octave-blink-matching-block' Non-`nil' means show matching begin of block when inserting a space, newline or `;' after an else or end keyword. Default is `t'. This is an extremely useful feature for automatically verifying that the keywords match--if they don't, an error message is displayed. `octave-block-offset' Extra indentation applied to statements in block structures. Default is 2. `octave-continuation-offset' Extra indentation applied to Octave continuation lines. Default is 4. `octave-continuation-string' String used for Octave continuation lines. Normally `\'. `octave-mode-startup-message' If `t' (default), a startup message is displayed when Octave mode is called. If Font Lock mode is enabled, Octave mode will display * strings in `font-lock-string-face' * comments in `font-lock-comment-face' * the Octave reserved words (such as all block keywords) and the text functions (such as `cd' or `who') which are also reserved using `font-lock-keyword-face' * the builtin operators (`&&', `<>', ...) using `font-lock-reference-face' * the builtin variables (such as `prefer_column_vectors', `NaN' or `LOADPATH') in `font-lock-variable-name-face' * and the function names in function declarations in `font-lock-function-name-face'. There is also rudimentary support for Imenu (currently, function names can be indexed). Customization of Octave mode can be performed by modification of the variable `octave-mode-hook'. It the value of this variable is non-`nil', turning on Octave mode calls its value. If you discover a problem with Octave mode, you can conveniently send a bug report using `C-c C-b' (`octave-submit-bug-report'). This automatically sets up a mail buffer with version information already added. You just need to add a description of the problem, including a reproducible test case and send the message. File: octave, Node: Running Octave From Within Emacs, Next: Using the Emacs Info Reader for Octave, Prev: Using Octave Mode, Up: Emacs Running Octave From Within Emacs ================================ The package `octave' provides commands for running an inferior Octave process in a special Emacs buffer. Use M-x run-octave to directly start an inferior Octave process. If Emacs does not know about this command, add the line (autoload 'run-octave "octave-inf" nil t) to your `.emacs' file. This will start Octave in a special buffer the name of which is specified by the variable `inferior-octave-buffer' and defaults to `"*Inferior Octave*"'. From within this buffer, you can interact with the inferior Octave process `as usual', i.e., by entering Octave commands at the prompt. The buffer is in Inferior Octave mode, which is derived from the standard Comint mode, a major mode for interacting with an inferior interpreter. See the documentation for `comint-mode' for more details, and use `C-h b' to find out about available special keybindings. You can also communicate with an inferior Octave process from within files with Octave code (i.e., buffers in Octave mode), using the following commands. `C-c i l' Send the current line to the inferior Octave process (`octave-send-line'). With positive prefix argument N, send that many lines. If `octave-send-line-auto-forward' is non-`nil', go to the next unsent code line. `C-c i b' Send the current block to the inferior Octave process (`octave-send-block'). `C-c i f' Send the current function to the inferior Octave process (`octave-send-defun'). `C-c i r' Send the region to the inferior Octave process (`octave-send-region'). `C-c i s' Make sure that `inferior-octave-buffer' is displayed (`octave-show-process-buffer'). `C-c i h' Delete all windows that display the inferior Octave buffer (`octave-hide-process-buffer'). `C-c i k' Kill the inferior Octave process and its buffer (`octave-kill-process'). The effect of the commands which send code to the Octave process can be customized by the following variables. `octave-send-echo-input' Non-`nil' means echo input sent to the inferior Octave process. Default is `t'. `octave-send-show-buffer' Non-`nil' means display the buffer running the Octave process after sending a command (but without selecting it). Default is `t'. If you send code and there is no inferior Octave process yet, it will be started automatically. The startup of the inferior Octave process is highly customizable. The variable `inferior-octave-startup-args' can be used for specifying command lines arguments to be passed to Octave on startup as a list of strings. For example, to suppress the startup message and use `traditional' mode, set this to `'("-q" "--traditional")'. You can also specify a startup file of Octave commands to be loaded on startup; note that these commands will not produce any visible output in the process buffer. Which file to use is controlled by the variable `inferior-octave-startup-file'. If this is `nil', the file `~/.emacs-octave' is used if it exists. And finally, `inferior-octave-mode-hook' is run after starting the process and putting its buffer into Inferior Octave mode. Hence, if you like the up and down arrow keys to behave in the interaction buffer as in the shell, and you want this buffer to use nice colors, add (add-hook 'inferior-octave-mode-hook (lambda () (turn-on-font-lock) (define-key inferior-octave-mode-map [up] 'comint-previous-input) (define-key inferior-octave-mode-map [down] 'comint-next-input))) to your `.emacs' file. You could also swap the roles of `C-a' (`beginning-of-line') and `C-c C-a' (`comint-bol') using this hook. *Note:* If you set your Octave prompts to something different from the defaults, make sure that `inferior-octave-prompt' matches them. Otherwise, *nothing* will work, because Emacs will have no idea when Octave is waiting for input, or done sending output. File: octave, Node: Using the Emacs Info Reader for Octave, Prev: Running Octave From Within Emacs, Up: Emacs Using the Emacs Info Reader for Octave ====================================== You can also have Octave's `help -i' command invoke the Emacs Info reader. To do this, you'll need `gnuserv', which can be retrieved from any GNU Emacs Lisp Code Directory archive, e.g. (ftp://ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive), in the `packages' subdirectory. The alpha version of an enhanced version of gnuserv is available at (ftp://ftp.wellfleet.com/netman/psmith/emacs/gnuserv-2.1alpha.tar.gz). If `gnuserv' is installed, add the lines (autoload 'octave-help "octave-hlp" nil t) (require 'gnuserv) (gnuserv-start) to your `.emacs' file. You can use either `plain' Emacs Info or the function `octave-help' as your Octave info reader (for `help -i'). In the former case, set the Octave variable `INFO_PROGRAM' to `"info-emacs-info"'. The latter is perhaps more attractive because it allows to look up keys in the indices of *several* info files related to Octave (provided that the Emacs variable `octave-help-files' is set correctly). In this case, set `INFO_PROGRAM' to `"info-emacs-octave-help"'. If you use Octave from within Emacs, these settings are best done in the startup file `~/.emacs-octave' (or the file pointed to by the Emacs variable `inferior-octave-startup-file'). File: octave, Node: Grammar, Next: Copying, Prev: Emacs, Up: Top Grammar ******* Someday I hope to expand this to include a semi-formal description of Octave's language. * Menu: * Keywords:: File: octave, Node: Keywords, Prev: Grammar, Up: Grammar Keywords ======== The following identifiers are keywords, and may not be used as variable or function names: all_va_args endwhile break for case function catch global continue gplot else gsplot elseif if end otherwise end_try_catch return end_unwind_protect switch endfor try endfunction unwind_protect endif unwind_protect_cleanup endswitch while The following command-like functions are also speical. They may be used as simple variable names, but not as formal parameters for functions, or as the names of structure variables. Failed assignments leave them undefined (you can recover the orginal definition as a function using clear). casesen echo load show cd edit_history ls type chdir format more which clear help run_history who diary history save whos dir hold set