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GNU Info File
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1997-08-20
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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
<bwarsaw@cnri.reston.va.us> 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