Python GUI Octave GUI

[Hubert Fitch]

Python GUI Octave GUI

To John W Eaton

I have needed  a good affordable Algebraic Calculator ever since my Student Edition of Matlab figured out that the variable "IsStudent" has a value of 0. (I am 72 and on Soc Security Retirement, and cannot buy the software.)

I finally found UCALC a DOS program, but I needed more global variables and Upper and lower case variables. II also need the help of a Windows GUI. I do not need matrix math, but would like to have the plotting that was available in Matlab.

In  my Quantum Mechanics course which I am auditing at the University of Indianapolis, Dr. Spiklemire (Physics Depart Head) my instructor, introduced me to Python. Python is an interpreted language, but also saves .pyc compiled verisons of .py files.

He helped me by writing a very neat function called "displayPyFile.py" that will do the assignments and calculations, and give a good formatted screen for Variable Name, Assignment Value, Assignment Formula, and Comments. I need a way to quickly see the many 15 digit precision results, and view the assignment formulas, and also have the output ready to put in a document file for publishing. I heard that Octave throws away the assignmnet formula?

He used split on the equal sign. This was a major help, because I use many assignments for physical constants and calculations of other global parameters needed by another module. I typically need 5 sets of data with about 25 to 50 different formulas for each data set, that all are called after the pythondef.py file is run to establish the global variables.

The screen output can use the File/Save Copy AS, for the screen results. This works well only for RTF files, because .text and .doc files lose the screen formatting.

I later discovered Octave, and hoped that it would work well for this application, and I hoped to distribute Octave with my Book on Physics which i am writing. (I like Octave's Distribution and Licensing terms better thatn Python's)

I need the screen formatting and save as RTF that I can get in Python. I also hoped that my older (1995) .m files would run in Octave. So far I have not had much luck with this, but if I had a good book on Octave programming, this would probably work out.

In Python, the editor in IDLE uses colors (as you are no doubt aware), and the GUI will accept Copy and Paste operations, as well as perform as a direct mode calculator.

In Octave, the Windows XP SR2 GUI does not allow easy Copy and Paste directly into the screen.

Is there an easy way to get a better GUI for Octave? that allows Quick Control-C and Contol-V copy and paste?

I subscribed to help Octave (and have been reading about 200 emails!).

I found a good Python book "Practical Python" by Magnus Lie Hetland, from Apress, at a half price books store I am reading it now. Is there a good book on Octave that you could suggest?

I really don't want to have to study two languages at once, so if I cannot find a better GUI, I may have to stick to Python?

Hubert Fitch