GNU Octave Gets a GUI 166
jones_supa writes "GNU Octave — the open source numerical computation suite compatible with MATLAB — is doing very well. The new 3.8 release is a big change, as it brings a graphical user interface, a feature which has long been requested by users. It is peppered with OpenGL acceleration and uses the super fast FLTK toolkit for widgets. The CLI interface still remains available and GNUplot is used as a fallback in cases where OpenGL or FLTK support is not available. Other changes to Octave 3.8 are support for nested functions with scoping rules, limited support for named exceptions, new regular expressions, a TeX parser for the FLTK toolkit, overhauls to many of the m-files, function rewrites, and numerous other changes and bug fixes."
Re:What is the added value over Python? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. This runs unmodified MATLAB code.
Re:Who the fuck wants to use GNU trash? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What is the added value over Python? (Score:5, Informative)
MATLAB compatibility. From my experience that is just about it, both are pretty feature complete but as Octave basically copies MATLAB warts and all so I don't know why anyone would use it if they knew other nicer programming languages. And if you have access to MATLAB and use it every day then MATLAB is just way faster than Octave (or at least was last time I used it).
Being a copy of MATLAB is really useful though, and Octave serves a role there. I code primarily in python (or C/C++) for work, but most of my colleagues use MATLAB. The Linux MATLAB client is crap and a pain to install and keep working, but Octave is one apt-get away and usually does the trick when I need to run my colleagues scripts or write something for them. It has a permanent spot on my hard drive for that.
Re:What is the added value over Python? (Score:5, Informative)
Good (Score:3, Informative)
.. but Matplotlib + iPython Notebook + Pandas is worth a look, for those trying to escape "Matlab Prison"
Re:scilab is better but french. (Score:5, Informative)
As others have pointed out, octave runs (mostly) unmodified matlab code. Scilab doesn't. However scilab is just close enough to matlab to be really annoying if you are used to matlab. I think that is really why octave is more popular than scilab (probably doesn't have anything to do with scilab being more French but who knows.) Don't want to pay $$$$ for matlab? Install otave for free and do almost everything you would normally do with matlab w/o relearning much of anything. One thing about octave though is that the graphics aren't as nice as scilab and aren't nearly as nice as matlab. I am not to excited about the gui (even use the cli on the latest version of matlab) but hopefully this new version will make the graphics in octave more in line with the other packages.
Re: Graphical REPL? (Score:2, Informative)
Mathematica replacement.
http://www.mathics.org/
You are welcome.
Photoshop as a platform (Score:4, Informative)
Examples of bullshit metrics would be something like "has to support Photoshop plugins"
Would "has to support industry-standard, proprietary plugins A, B, and C, which are critical in my company's field of work and whose developers refuse to take our money for a port to GIMP" be more honest?
Re:What is the added value over Python? (Score:2, Informative)
Matlab itself can be easily replaced by Octave. But the value of matlab is in the available domain specific toolboxes and companies are willing to pay the 4- and 5-digit prices for these extension because they can save man-months or even man-years with them.
Re:What is the added value over Python? (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, the fact that it runs always, while MATLAB does only sometimes, is why I use it when I need to run MATLAB stuff, even though my institution actually has a MATLAB site-license. Octave generally just works, while MATLAB has a bunch of license-server nonsense. Among other things, it doesn't work at all if you're offline (e.g. on a plane), since it has to contact the license server, and network-licensed copies have no Steam-style "offline mode", even a temporary one. And even online, the license server appears to be run on a toaster and down half the time, although that's probably my university's fault rather than MathWorks's fault.
Re: qtoctave (Score:4, Informative)
you will, however, find that no one works on it any more, the last active dev (me) now directs contributions to the official gui.
Re:Is it a competitor? (Score:5, Informative)
It's enormously cheaper. I'm now at a commercial analytic software company which could use MATLAB productively, but it isn't completely essential. Just one machine-locked license with a small array of basic toolboxes was $35,000 with a substantial yearly fee. Mathworks obviously didn't want our business. The attitude from management was that they pay money to hire smart people who know how to figure out things and we can use R or python or octave for free on all of our servers and PC clients. At $500 they might have had a sale.
I compiled it from source and use octave, and yes commercial MATLAB is certainly a better and more comprehensive product.
Re: Drawing in GIMP (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking as someone who uses these kinds of programs mainly for drawing/painting, GIMP is useless to me; I've yet to find a way to rotate/flip the viewport (not the image itself), save as/export issues as you've mentioned, no easy way to configure some necessary shortcuts (though it's been some months since I've used it, so I may be misremembering or it may have changed), the number bars for brush size, etc. are fucking awful, etc.
You can't find viewport adjustment because it doesn't exist; GIMP is oriented toward image manipulation, not creation. Using GIMP or Photoshop as a drawing tool is a case of forcing the tool to be used in ways it wasn't originally intended, and unlike Photoshop, GIMP doesn't have the development resources for adding those sorts of things.
What you should really be using is Krita [krita.org], which lives somewhere between the extremes of GIMP and MyPaint. It isn't as powerful for editing as GIMP is, but it still has various editing tools, while still being focused on creation tools.
Some interesting Krita features:
* Non-destructive (i.e. viewpoint only) canvas rotation.
* Non-destructive mirroring of the canvas.
* Multiple viewports of the same canvas with independent zoom, mirroring, rotation.
* Different layer types, including paint, vector, and filter.
* Layer grouping.
* Filter layers can be applied to either a single layer or a layer group, modifying the composite of the group's layers.
* These Filters are non-destructive: they can be added or removed, and the layer(s) they affect can be edited while they're in use.
* An excellent pop-up colour and brush selector [timotheegiet.com]. The centre is a normal colour selector, the middle ring lists the last twelve used colours, and the outer ring has ten brushes of your choice.
* Multiple brush engines, all very flexible. The normal pixel brush engine is powerful by itself, but there is also a colour smudge brush for smooth blending (not mixing), a brush that emulates the harmony [mrdoob.com] brushes, another that emulates Alchemy [chemy.org]'s shape brush, and "deform brush" that can nudge and move strokes on the canvas.
* An editable perspective grid. Brush strokes can be forced to follow it for striaght, accurate lines.
* Pseudo-infinite canvas. The canvas is finite, but when you scroll past the edge, an arrow appears; click it and the canvas extends in that direction. Not as nice as MyPaint, but still better than using a resize UI for quick extending.
* Sessions. You can set up different UI layouts and change them on-the-fly with a click.
* Different colour and shade selectors available, including the MyPaint one.
* CMYK, RGB, and other colour models available, as well as varying bit depths
Re:even better: R (Score:4, Informative)
R has everything I need for linear algebra. [bendixcarstensen.com]
I love the graphics on R as well. Matlab always looks too computer-y for me. However, the thing I love the most about R is that not only is it free and top-notch quality, but I run it on my Windows box, linux box, for giggles I've loaded it on Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi, and if I ever get around to rooting my phone, I could even load it on there as well. No license files.
With regard to Octave, when I've been given m-files, I've found Octave to be a very good substitute for Matlab.