Octave.app 3.2.0 for MacOSX

[Thomas Treichl]

Hi,

I have uploaded the compressed disc images *.dmg including Octave.app
3.2.0 for PPC and i386 MacOSX to the SourceForge's server. The system
requirements for the PPC architecture are MacOSX 10.4.x or newer and a
PPC G4 processor or better, for the i386 architecture MacOSX 10.4.x or
newer. You can get it from http://octave.sourceforge.net.

We have had more than 4300 downloads for Octave.app 3.0.5 the past 2
months. Now, if you find this program useful then please support its
development by contributing to the Octave core development team. See
http://www.octave.org/help-wanted.html for more information about how
you can help.

There have been a lot of changes since Octave 3.0.x. I will summarize
the major changes for Octave.app 3.2.0 on MacOSX, but for a full list
of changes I suggest that you read John W. Eaton's announcement of GNU
Octave 3.2.0 at
http://www-old.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/help-octave/2009-June/014659.html

- I have reworked the Readme.html file of the compressed disc images
  for Octave.app completely. Please let me know if I forgot something
  or if you have any suggestions to make them even better.

- I have created another selfmade Gnuplot.app version 4.2.5 that can
  be found in the 'Extras' directory of the compressed disc images. I
  also added a reworked Readme.html file for Gnuplot.app.

- Octave.app and Gnuplot.app now require MacOSX version 10.4.x on
  both platforms. I will no longer build future versions of Octave.app
  (3.2.0 or higher) for PPC against SDK 10.3.9 because of missing and
  outdated libraries of the MacOSX 10.3.9 system.

- Octave.app and Gnuplot.app now can be installed in any place of your
  filesystem. As long as both programs will be installed in the same
  directory Octave.app will automatically find and use Gnuplot.app as
  the graphics backend (even if you have installed another gnuplot
  binary somewhere else).

- All Fortran sources of the necessary libraries and GNU Octave 3.2.0
  have been compiled with the g95 Fortran compiler (stable version
  0.91, March 2008 available from www.g95.org for 10.4.x systems). The
  f2c/fort77 Fortran compiler combination that has been used in the
  2.9.x and 3.0.x series of Octave.app will no longer be used for
  Octave.app 3.2.0 or higher.

- GNU Octave 3.2.0 now comes with the "eigs" function that uses the
  Arpack library in the background. There is no need to install
  Octave-Forge's Arpack package anymore.

- GNU Octave 3.2.0 now comes with the "image" function and others. The
  image function uses the GraphicksMagic library. I compiled
  GraphicsMagick with support for further external libraries libjpeg,
  libpng and libtiff but there are still many more backends available
  with GraphicksMagick, cf. http://www.graphicsmagick.org/formats.html.

  I did not compile GraphicsMagick against *all* available *external*
  libraries, cf. "Add-On Libraries & Programs" at
  http://www.graphicsmagick.org/README.html.

- GNU Octave 3.2.0 now comes with an alternative builtin OpenGL-based
  graphics backend. You can switch to the new backend with the command
    backend ("fltk");
  Switch back to the Gnuplot default backend with the command
    __remove_fltk__ ();
    backend ("gnuplot");

- There currently are known problems with the OpenGL-based graphics
  backend on the Mac platform that need to be fixed:

  Calling 'exit' or 'clear all' if backend ("fltk") is active crashes
  Octave.app, the workaround for this is to call __remove_fltk__ ();
  before you call 'exit' or 'clear all' or you register this function
  to be called before exit with 'atexit ("__remove_fltk__")'.

  Resizing graphics windows with the mouse currently doesn't work. The
  workaround for this is to use the get and set functions instead, for
  example
    get (gcf, 'position');
    set (gcf, 'position', [A(1:2), A(3:4) .* 1.5]);

- If you want to help developing GNU Octave with the latest sources
  available and if you want to use Octave.app for doing so then
  consider using the shell script 'selfupdate.sh' which is available
  in the SVN repository beside all other Octave.app build scripts at

http://octave.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/octave/trunk/octave-forge/admin/MacOSX/Octave.app

  Before you use this script I recommend that you *carefully* read all
  the comments inside.

- The md5 check sums of the compressed disc images are:
    MD5 (octave-3.2.0-i386.dmg) = 2ad5d7e824395c7a2910bce99f29a9dc
    MD5 (octave-3.2.0-ppc.dmg) = 4d84bb238db40755876a9f68215a8085

That's it from my side, enjoy,

  Thomas