Re: Precompiled 3.4.0 for Mac lacks gnuplot

[Liam Groener]

On Jul 16, 2011, at 3:17 AM, Ardillas del Monte wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm new to Octave, but I've used Matlab and I'd like to try Octave.
> 
> I'm on a Mac with 10.6.x, so I downloaded the precompiled 3.4.0 package, 
> which says that it's ready to run and comes with all necessary stuff.
> 
> When mounting the DMG image, I see that both the Documentation and Extras 
> dirs are empty (zero bytes). I dragged the Octave.app file into my 
> applications directory.
> 
> When I try to plot something, I get the error stating "gnuplot: command not 
> found".
> 
> What do I have to do in order to get 3.4.0 working on my Mac? Must I install 
> other packages?

I recommend you just compile octave 3.4.2 with MacPorts as Ben suggested. Once 
macports itself is installed, just enter the command:
 sudo port install octave-devel +fltk
in a Terminal window. However, the build will take a long time as there are a 
number of dependancies to be installed. So, if you want to try out octave 
first, you can download a pre-built gnuplot binary from:
 http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Math-Scientific/gnuplot.shtml
If, after installing gnuplot in your Applications folder, the pre-built octave 
application does not recognize it, add the following line to your .octaverc 
file:
gnuplot_binary( '/Applications/gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gnuplot')
(An .octaverc file should be in your home folder; if not create one there. You 
will need an editor that recognizes hidden files, starting with a period, to 
edit your .octaverc file. If, you don't have one already, I suggest the free 
TextWrangler; choose "open any file" from the open dialog.)