19.08.2015.

AFreeMATLABAlternativeCalledOctave

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Odaberitejezik

Firstpublishedon:122015

AFreeMATLABAlternativeCalledOctave
JaiSachithPaul
Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB) is an alltime favourite tool for electronics engineers working on data interpretation and
analysis. There are a lot of reasons that help justify its positionthe ease of use, flexibility, documentation and add
onsintheformoftoolboxes,amongothers.Butforbeginners,enthusiastsandacademicians,MATLABisnotalwaysa
smartchoice.Thesoftwarealongwithtoolboxesistoocostlyforthemtopurchase.
In the search for an effective alternative for MATLAB, we cannot compromise on certain features. First feature is
obviouslycompatibilitywithMATLAB.Ifatonepointoftime,theuserwantstoswitchtoMATLAB,heorsheshouldnot
beforcedtorewritetheentirecode.Second,allcomputationsinthetoolshouldbebasedonmatricesasinMATLAB.
Also,theusershouldbeabletocreatefunctionsintheprogram.Wecanaddalotmoretothislist.Inthisarticlewe
areintroducingGNUOctave,asmartopensourcetoolthathasallthefeaturesthatenableittobeaclosealternative
toMATLAB.
http://electronicsforu.com/electronicsforu/circuitarchives/view_article.asp?sno=2240&title%20=%20A+Free+MATLAB+Alternative+Called+Octave&id=13621&article_type=15&b_type=new

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WhatisGNUOctave
GNU Octave is a highlevel programming tool for complex numerical computations. The interactive command line
interface (CLI) provides an excellent mechanism for solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically. The latest
version3.8.2isequippedwithagraphicaluserinterface(GUI)alongwiththetraditionalCLI.
OctavemakesuseofaninterpreterforcompilingandexecutingOctaveinstructionsatruntime.Itcancreate,saveor
print plots, graphs and charts with the help of gnuplot and Grace software present in this months EFY Plus DVD. The
toolprovidesextensivegraphicscapabilitiesfordatavisualisationandmanipulation.
The software is written in C++ using C++ standard library. It is available under the GNU generalpublic licence and
canbeused,sharedandmodifiedfreeofcost.
OctavenowincorporatesGUI
Untilrecently,themainblameonOctavesoftwarewasthatitdidnotprovidetheuserwithaGUI.Theargumentthe
companygavewas,ifyoudonothaveapocketcalculator,youwillbereallystrongatmathematics.Similarly,ifyou
donothaveaGUI,youwilllearnthelanguagebetter.Buttheuserswerenotquitehappywithsuchananswer.Octave
hasfinallycomeupwithaworkableGUIfromversion3.8.0onwards.

GNUOctave
http://electronicsforu.com/electronicsforu/circuitarchives/view_article.asp?sno=2240&title%20=%20A+Free+MATLAB+Alternative+Called+Octave&id=13621&article_type=15&b_type=new

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Since the GUI is not polished, the graphical interface is not default and the user has to invoke GUI with forceGUI
option. Developers are working on the pain areas of the present graphical interface of the software, and will soon
comeupwithanotherversion4.0.x,withdefaultGUI.
HowOctaveisdifferentfromMATLAB
LetusseehowsomefeaturesinOctavearedifferentfromthoseinMATLAB.
Nocompiler. Octave does not have a compiler, and hence we cannot convert Octave code into binary for additional
speedordistribution.
Nojustintime(JIT)compiler. The JIT compiler in MATLAB increases the speed of forloops in MATLAB to almost
native performance with certain restrictions. Octave does not have a JIT, and hence it might be somewhat slower in
suchcases.Inordertoresolvethis,vectoriseyourcodeasmuchaspossible.
Nestedfunctions.InMATLAB,nestedfunctionshaveaccesstotheparentfunctionsscope.Octavedoesnothavethis
provision.
Definingfeaturesinthecommandline.Wecandirectlywritecodeonthecommandlinefordefiningthefeaturesin
Octave.
Commenting statements with # instead of %. The main advantage of having # instead of % at the start of
commentlineisthat#isalsoacommentcharacterforunixscriptfiles.Anyfilethatstartswithastringwith#will
betreatedasanOctavescriptandbeexecutedbyOctave.
Stringsdelimitedbydoublequotes.Thedoublequote()maybeusedtodelimitstrings,inadditiontothesingle
quote().Also,doublequotedstringsincludebackslash(\)interpretation(asinC,C++andPerl),whilesinglequoted
stringsareuninterpreted.
Linecontinuationbybackslash.Wecancontinuethelineswithabackslash(\)orbyusingthreedots().
Functionhandles,variableargumentlistsandclassdefinition.There are some limitations in the function handles
and variable argument lists in the LHS of an expression. MATLAB classdef objectoriented programming is not yet
supported,thoughworkisunderwayinabranchofthedevelopmenttree.
Checkoutthelink(http://wiki.octave.org/FAQ)formoredifferences.
HowOctaveisdifferentfromitscompetingtools
TherehasbeenalotofresearcharoundtheworldtofindoutthebestalternativetooltoMATLAB.FreeMat,Scilab,R
andSpyderaresomeofthepopulartoolsincompetitionwithOctave,tobethebestalternativetoMATLAB.
MichaelDunn,inoneofhisblogstitledALookatOctavevsScilab,pointsoutthatunlikeOctave,thesyntaxofScilab
http://electronicsforu.com/electronicsforu/circuitarchives/view_article.asp?sno=2240&title%20=%20A+Free+MATLAB+Alternative+Called+Octave&id=13621&article_type=15&b_type=new

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is quite different from MATLAB. He mentions that the development environment of Scilab is far better than Octaves.
Scilab uses a syntaxaware editor, variablewatch window, interactive terminal, help system and file browser, while
Octaveusesaterminalinterface.
Some users prefer R to Octave because they feel that the data collection, manipulation and analysis capabilities of R
arecomparabletoMATLAB.RcanrunonWindows,LinuxandevenRaspberryPi.
Inaresearchpaperonfreealternativenumericalcomputationalpackages,MatthewW.Brewsterpointsoutthatboth
FreeMatandScilabexhibitedsomeincompatibilitywithMATLABandsomeperformanceproblemsintheirtests.
Neeraj Sharma and Matthias K. Gobbert, in their research paper titled A Comparative Evaluation of MATLAB, Octave,
FreeMat and Scilab for Research and Teaching, find that all packages gave identical numerical results, though Scilab
exhibited a limitation in the size of the linear system it could solve in the complex test problem, and FreeMat was
hamperedbythelackofaconjugategradientfunction.Theavailablegraphicalfunctionsdifferinfunctionalitybutgive
equivalent plots, though FreeMat has limited threedimensional graphics capabilities at present. GNU Octave is the
most compatible with MATLAB due to its numerical abilities and similarity of syntax. Another reason to consider
Octave is that free parallelcomputing extensions are available that are known to work with this package, conclude
theseresearchers.
WhatusersthinkaboutOctave
Users,especiallybeginners,feelthatOctaveisanincrediblygoodtool.Intheiropinion,itevenoutplaysMATLABina
Linuxenvironment.
It never ceases to amaze me that developers write such incredible software and put it out there for free. With this
software you can plot sigmoid functions and calculate the transpose of any matrix easily. It is essentially a free
version of MATLAB. So, I cannot imagine any business not utilising this priceless software. I am deeply grateful to
OctavedevelopersbecauseitmeansthatIcanwatchalinearalgebravideo,actuallytestitandmakeitworkonmy
computer. The complexity of maths that Octave can handle is amazing. And, all of this for free. Thank you just does
notseemtomeanenough,saysauseronapps.ubundu.com
A user writes in mathworks.com, The language is almost identical to basic MATLAB. The discriminating difference is
thatOctaveisopensourceandfree.Formyroboticsmodellingapplications,itismorethanadequate.Iwilllikelystop
spendingmoneyonMATLAB,especiallyiftheOctaveorganisationdevelopsabasicSimulinklikecapability.
Averyusefultool
From the above discussions, we can easily conclude that Octave is an excellent alternative to MATLAB for complex
numericalcomputations.Itoutplaysmostofitscompetentopensourcesoftwareinitsusabilityandperformance.The
graphical interface, which is a recently added functionality, makes this tool more userfriendly. So why not give
OctaveatryusingthesoftwareaccompanyingFeburarymonthsEFYPlusDVD?
TheauthorworkedatEFYtillrecently

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