Re: Installing Octave

[Brian Blais]

address@hidden wrote:
> I would like to install Octave on my PC.... however, I don't want to 
> compile, link, load or perform any other system type operations, I just 
> want to install it with InstallShield or something similar.
>  

If you go to the octave website, for windows binaries installs, it will 
point you to:

http://home.tiscalinet.ch/paulsoderlind/Software/Software.html

(scroll down to "The Easy Way").

It will then point you to

http://sourceforge.net/projects/octave

where there are some windows binaries.  although not InstallShield, it 
is as simple as that.  unfortunately, it is a version that it a bit 
dated (2.1.50).  There are some volunteers who are working on a more 
recent binaries windows install, from what I hear, but I don't know the 
estimate for it.

>  From the website I'm getting the idea that Octave must be complied, 
> lilnked, etc., you know, stuff people did 20 years ago to get a program 
> up......
>  

Sorry to disappoint you, but people still do compiling to get programs 
up today.  It is not uncommon (on Linux) to recompile software, for 
example, to install security updates.  Now, in Windows, one doesn't do 
that, but there really aren't any security problems in Windows.  ;)

> I had high hopes for Octave, and I think that a free version of Matlab, 
> or something similar, should be available to every 
> math/physics/engineering student, even in high school (they now use 
> graphing calculators....a true pain in the booty)....
>  

I use it with my students, who don't have a lot of experience.  What I 
do for them is to compile a recent version, then bundle the whole thing 
up in a .zip file.  I include a file with registry keys, so all they 
have to do is unzip the file, double-click on the registry keys file, 
and then it all works.  You have to manually add the shortcuts, however, 
but there is no compiling for them.

hope this helps,

                                bb
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            address@hidden
            http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais



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