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[project @ 1999-10-19 10:06:07 by jwe]
author jwe
date Tue, 19 Oct 1999 10:08:42 +0000
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1 @c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997 John W. Eaton
2 @c This is part of the Octave manual.
3 @c For copying conditions, see the file gpl.texi.
4
5 @node Preface, Introduction, Top, Top
6 @unnumbered Preface
7 @cindex contributors
8 @cindex history
9
10 Octave was originally intended to be companion software for an
11 undergraduate-level textbook on chemical reactor design being written by
12 James B. Rawlings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and John
13 G. Ekerdt of the University of Texas.
14
15 Clearly, Octave is now much more than just another `courseware' package
16 with limited utility beyond the classroom. Although our initial goals
17 were somewhat vague, we knew that we wanted to create something that
18 would enable students to solve realistic problems, and that they could
19 use for many things other than chemical reactor design problems.
20
21 There are those who would say that we should be teaching the students
22 Fortran instead, because that is the computer language of engineering,
23 but every time we have tried that, the students have spent far too much
24 time trying to figure out why their Fortran code crashes and not enough
25 time learning about chemical engineering. With Octave, most students
26 pick up the basics quickly, and are using it confidently in just a few
27 hours.
28
29 Although it was originally intended to be used to teach reactor design,
30 it has been used in several other undergraduate and graduate
31 courses in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of
32 Texas, and the math department at the University of Texas has been using
33 it for teaching differential equations and linear algebra as well. If
34 you find it useful, please let us know. We are always interested to
35 find out how Octave is being used in other places.
36
37 Virtually everyone thinks that the name Octave has something to do with
38 music, but it is actually the name of a former professor of mine who
39 wrote a famous textbook on chemical reaction engineering, and who was
40 also well known for his ability to do quick `back of the envelope'
41 calculations. We hope that this software will make it possible for many
42 people to do more ambitious computations just as easily.
43
44 Everyone is encouraged to share this software with others under the
45 terms of the GNU General Public License (@pxref{Copying}) as described
46 at the beginning of this manual. You are also encouraged to help make
47 Octave more useful by writing and contributing additional functions for
48 it, and by reporting any problems you may have.
49
50 @menu
51 * Acknowledgements::
52 * How You Can Contribute to Octave::
53 * Distribution::
54 @end menu
55
56 @node Acknowledgements, How You Can Contribute to Octave, Preface, Preface
57 @unnumberedsec Acknowledgements
58 @cindex acknowledgements
59
60 Many people have already contributed to Octave's development. In
61 addition to John W. Eaton, the following people have helped write parts
62 of Octave or helped out in various other ways.
63
64 @c Once lp_solve has been added, don't forget to include the lp_solve
65 @c author, and Kantor, for providing an example.
66
67 @itemize @bullet
68 @item
69 Thomas Baier @email{baier@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} wrote the original versions
70 of @code{popen}, @code{pclose}, @code{execute}, @code{sync_system}, and
71 @code{async_system}.
72
73 @item
74 Karl Berry @email{karl@@cs.umb.edu} wrote the @code{kpathsea} library
75 that allows Octave to recursively search directory paths for function
76 and script files.
77
78 @item
79 Georg Beyerle @email{gbeyerle@@awi-potsdam.de} contributed code to save
80 values in @sc{Matlab}'s @file{.mat}-file format, and has provided many
81 useful bug reports and suggestions.
82
83 @item
84 John Campbell @email{jcc@@bevo.che.wisc.edu} wrote most of the file and
85 C-style input and output functions.
86
87 @item
88 Brian Fox @email{bfox@@gnu.org} wrote the @code{readline} library
89 used for command history editing, and the portion of this manual that
90 documents it.
91
92 @item
93 Klaus Gebhardt @email{gebhardt@@crunch.ikp.physik.th-darmstadt.de}
94 ported Octave to OS/2.
95
96 @item
97 A. Scottedward Hodel @email{A.S.Hodel@@eng.auburn.edu} contributed a number
98 of functions including @code{expm}, @code{qzval}, @code{qzhess},
99 @code{syl}, @code{lyap}, and @code{balance}.
100
101 @item
102 Kurt Hornik @email{Kurt.Hornik@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} provided the
103 @code{corrcoef}, @code{cov}, @code{fftconv}, @code{fftfilt}, @code{gcd},
104 @code{lcd}, @code{kurtosis}, @code{null}, @code{orth}, @code{poly},
105 @code{polyfit}, @code{roots}, and @code{skewness} functions, supplied
106 documentation for these and numerous other functions, rewrote the Emacs
107 mode for editing Octave code and provided its documentation, and has
108 helped tremendously with testing. He has also been a constant source of
109 new ideas for improving Octave.
110
111 @item
112 Phil Johnson @email{johnsonp@@nicco.sscnet.ucla.edu} has helped to make
113 Linux releases available.
114
115 @item
116 Friedrich Leisch @email{leisch@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} provided the
117 @code{mahalanobis} function.
118
119 @item
120 Ken Neighbors @email{wkn@@leland.stanford.edu} has provided many useful
121 bug reports and comments on @sc{Matlab} compatibility.
122
123 @item
124 Rick Niles @email{niles@@axp745.gsfc.nasa.gov} rewrote Octave's plotting
125 functions to add line styles and the ability to specify an unlimited
126 number of lines in a single call. He also continues to track down odd
127 incompatibilities and bugs.
128
129 @item
130 Mark Odegard @email{meo@@sugarland.unocal.com} provided the initial
131 implementation of @code{fread}, @code{fwrite}, @code{feof}, and
132 @code{ferror}.
133
134 @item
135 Tony Richardson @email{arichard@@stark.cc.oh.us} wrote Octave's
136 image processing functions as well as most of the original polynomial
137 functions.
138
139 @item
140 R. Bruce Tenison @email{Bruce.Tenison@@eng.auburn.edu} wrote the
141 @code{hess} and @code{schur} functions.
142
143 @item
144 Teresa Twaroch @email{twaroch@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} provided the functions
145 @code{gls} and @code{ols}.
146
147 @item
148 Andreas Weingessel @email{Andreas.Weingessel@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} wrote the
149 audio functions @code{lin2mu}, @code{loadaudio}, @code{mu2lin},
150 @code{playaudio}, @code{record}, @code{saveaudio}, and @code{setaudio}.
151
152 @item
153 Fook Fah Yap @email{ffy@@eng.cam.ac.uk} provided the @code{fft} and
154 @code{ifft} functions and valuable bug reports for early versions.
155 @end itemize
156
157 Special thanks to the following people and organizations for
158 supporting the development of Octave:
159
160 @itemize @bullet
161 @item
162 Digital Equipment Corporation, for an equipment grant as part of their
163 External Research Program.
164
165 @item
166 Sun Microsystems, Inc., for an Academic Equipment grant.
167
168 @item
169 International Business Machines, Inc., for providing equipment as part
170 of a grant to the University of Texas College of Engineering.
171
172 @item
173 Texaco Chemical Company, for providing funding to continue the
174 development of this software.
175
176 @item
177 The University of Texas College of Engineering, for providing a
178 Challenge for Excellence Research Supplement, and for providing an
179 Academic Development Funds grant.
180
181 @item
182 The State of Texas, for providing funding through the Texas
183 Advanced Technology Program under Grant No. 003658-078.
184
185 @item
186 Noel Bell, Senior Engineer, Texaco Chemical Company, Austin Texas.
187
188 @item
189 James B. Rawlings, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
190 Department of Chemical Engineering.
191
192 @item
193 Richard Stallman, for writing GNU.
194 @end itemize
195
196 This project would not have been possible without the GNU software used
197 in and used to produce Octave.
198
199 @node How You Can Contribute to Octave, Distribution, Acknowledgements, Preface
200 @unnumberedsec How You Can Contribute to Octave
201 @cindex contributing to Octave
202 @cindex funding Octave development
203
204 There are a number of ways that you can contribute to help make Octave a
205 better system. Perhaps the most important way to contribute is to write
206 high-quality code for solving new problems, and to make your code freely
207 available for others to use.
208
209 If you find Octave useful, consider providing additional funding to
210 continue its development. Even a modest amount of additional funding
211 could make a significant difference in the amount of time that is
212 available for development and support.
213
214 If you cannot provide funding or contribute code, you can still help
215 make Octave better and more reliable by reporting any bugs you find and
216 by offering suggestions for ways to improve Octave. @xref{Trouble}, for
217 tips on how to write useful bug reports.
218
219 @node Distribution, , How You Can Contribute to Octave, Preface
220 @unnumberedsec Distribution
221 @cindex distribution of Octave
222
223 Octave is @dfn{free} software. This means that everyone is free to
224 use it and free to redistribute it on certain conditions. Octave is not
225 in the public domain. It is copyrighted and there are restrictions on
226 its distribution, but the restrictions are designed to ensure that
227 others will have the same freedom to use and redistribute Octave that
228 you have. The precise conditions can be found in the GNU General Public
229 License that comes with Octave and that also appears in @ref{Copying}.
230
231 Octave is available on CD-ROM with various collections of other free
232 software, and from the Free Software Foundation. Ordering a copy of
233 Octave from the Free Software Foundation helps to fund the development
234 of more free software. For more information, write to
235
236 @quotation
237 Free Software Foundation@*
238 59 Temple Place---Suite 330@*
239 Boston, MA 02111--1307@*
240 USA
241 @end quotation
242
243 Octave is also available on the Internet from
244 @url{ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave}, and additional information is
245 available from @url{http://www.che.wisc.edu/octave}.