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+@c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997 John W. Eaton
+@c This is part of the Octave manual.
+@c For copying conditions, see the file gpl.texi.
+
+@node Preface, Introduction, Top, Top
+@unnumbered Preface
+@cindex contributors
+@cindex history
+
+Octave was originally intended to be companion software for an
+undergraduate-level textbook on chemical reactor design being written by
+James B. Rawlings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and John
+G. Ekerdt of the University of Texas.
+
+Clearly, Octave is now much more than just another `courseware' package
+with limited utility beyond the classroom.  Although our initial goals
+were somewhat vague, we knew that we wanted to create something that
+would enable students to solve realistic problems, and that they could
+use for many things other than chemical reactor design problems.
+
+There are those who would say that we should be teaching the students
+Fortran instead, because that is the computer language of engineering,
+but every time we have tried that, the students have spent far too much
+time trying to figure out why their Fortran code crashes and not enough
+time learning about chemical engineering.  With Octave, most students
+pick up the basics quickly, and are using it confidently in just a few
+hours.
+
+Although it was originally intended to be used to teach reactor design,
+it has been used in several other undergraduate and graduate
+courses in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of
+Texas, and the math department at the University of Texas has been using
+it for teaching differential equations and linear algebra as well.  If
+you find it useful, please let us know.  We are always interested to
+find out how Octave is being used in other places.
+
+Virtually everyone thinks that the name Octave has something to do with
+music, but it is actually the name of a former professor of mine who
+wrote a famous textbook on chemical reaction engineering, and who was
+also well known for his ability to do quick `back of the envelope'
+calculations.  We hope that this software will make it possible for many
+people to do more ambitious computations just as easily.
+
+Everyone is encouraged to share this software with others under the
+terms of the GNU General Public License (@pxref{Copying}) as described
+at the beginning of this manual.  You are also encouraged to help make
+Octave more useful by writing and contributing additional functions for
+it, and by reporting any problems you may have.
+
+@menu
+* Acknowledgements::            
+* How You Can Contribute to Octave::  
+* Distribution::                
+@end menu
+
+@node Acknowledgements, How You Can Contribute to Octave, Preface, Preface
+@unnumberedsec Acknowledgements
+@cindex acknowledgements
+
+Many people have already contributed to Octave's development.  In
+addition to John W. Eaton, the following people have helped write parts
+of Octave or helped out in various other ways.
+
+@c Once lp_solve has been added, don't forget to include the lp_solve
+@c author, and Kantor, for providing an example.
+
+@itemize @bullet
+@item
+Thomas Baier @email{baier@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} wrote the original versions
+of @code{popen}, @code{pclose}, @code{execute}, @code{sync_system}, and
+@code{async_system}.
+
+@item
+Karl Berry @email{karl@@cs.umb.edu} wrote the @code{kpathsea} library
+that allows Octave to recursively search directory paths for function
+and script files.
+
+@item
+Georg Beyerle @email{gbeyerle@@awi-potsdam.de} contributed code to save
+values in @sc{Matlab}'s @file{.mat}-file format, and has provided many
+useful bug reports and suggestions.
+
+@item
+John Campbell @email{jcc@@bevo.che.wisc.edu} wrote most of the file and
+C-style input and output functions.
+
+@item
+Brian Fox @email{bfox@@gnu.org} wrote the @code{readline} library
+used for command history editing, and the portion of this manual that
+documents it.
+
+@item
+Klaus Gebhardt @email{gebhardt@@crunch.ikp.physik.th-darmstadt.de}
+ported Octave to OS/2.
+
+@item
+A. Scottedward Hodel @email{A.S.Hodel@@eng.auburn.edu} contributed a number
+of functions including @code{expm}, @code{qzval}, @code{qzhess},
+@code{syl}, @code{lyap}, and @code{balance}.
+
+@item
+Kurt Hornik @email{Kurt.Hornik@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} provided the
+@code{corrcoef}, @code{cov}, @code{fftconv}, @code{fftfilt}, @code{gcd},
+@code{lcd}, @code{kurtosis}, @code{null}, @code{orth}, @code{poly},
+@code{polyfit}, @code{roots}, and @code{skewness} functions, supplied
+documentation for these and numerous other functions, rewrote the Emacs
+mode for editing Octave code and provided its documentation, and has
+helped tremendously with testing.  He has also been a constant source of
+new ideas for improving Octave.
+
+@item
+Phil Johnson @email{johnsonp@@nicco.sscnet.ucla.edu} has helped to make
+Linux releases available.
+
+@item
+Friedrich Leisch @email{leisch@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} provided the
+@code{mahalanobis} function.
+
+@item
+Ken Neighbors @email{wkn@@leland.stanford.edu} has provided many useful
+bug reports and comments on @sc{Matlab} compatibility.
+
+@item
+Rick Niles @email{niles@@axp745.gsfc.nasa.gov} rewrote Octave's plotting
+functions to add line styles and the ability to specify an unlimited
+number of lines in a single call.  He also continues to track down odd
+incompatibilities and bugs.
+
+@item
+Mark Odegard @email{meo@@sugarland.unocal.com} provided the initial
+implementation of @code{fread}, @code{fwrite}, @code{feof}, and
+@code{ferror}.
+
+@item
+Tony Richardson @email{arichard@@stark.cc.oh.us} wrote Octave's
+image processing functions as well as most of the original polynomial
+functions.
+
+@item
+R. Bruce Tenison @email{Bruce.Tenison@@eng.auburn.edu} wrote the
+@code{hess} and @code{schur} functions.
+
+@item
+Teresa Twaroch @email{twaroch@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} provided the functions
+@code{gls} and @code{ols}.
+
+@item
+Andreas Weingessel @email{Andreas.Weingessel@@ci.tuwien.ac.at} wrote the
+audio functions @code{lin2mu}, @code{loadaudio}, @code{mu2lin},
+@code{playaudio}, @code{record}, @code{saveaudio}, and @code{setaudio}.
+
+@item
+Fook Fah Yap @email{ffy@@eng.cam.ac.uk} provided the @code{fft} and
+@code{ifft} functions and valuable bug reports for early versions.
+@end itemize
+
+Special thanks to the following people and organizations for
+supporting the development of Octave:
+
+@itemize @bullet
+@item
+Digital Equipment Corporation, for an equipment grant as part of their
+External Research Program.
+
+@item
+Sun Microsystems, Inc., for an Academic Equipment grant.
+
+@item
+International Business Machines, Inc., for providing equipment as part
+of a grant to the University of Texas College of Engineering.
+
+@item
+Texaco Chemical Company, for providing funding to continue the
+development of this software.
+
+@item
+The University of Texas College of Engineering, for providing a
+Challenge for Excellence Research Supplement, and for providing an
+Academic Development Funds grant.
+
+@item
+The State of Texas, for providing funding through the Texas
+Advanced Technology Program under Grant No. 003658-078.
+
+@item
+Noel Bell, Senior Engineer, Texaco Chemical Company, Austin Texas.
+
+@item
+James B. Rawlings, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
+Department of Chemical Engineering.
+
+@item
+Richard Stallman, for writing GNU.
+@end itemize
+
+This project would not have been possible without the GNU software used
+in and used to produce Octave.
+
+@node How You Can Contribute to Octave, Distribution, Acknowledgements, Preface
+@unnumberedsec How You Can Contribute to Octave
+@cindex contributing to Octave
+@cindex funding Octave development
+
+There are a number of ways that you can contribute to help make Octave a
+better system.  Perhaps the most important way to contribute is to write
+high-quality code for solving new problems, and to make your code freely
+available for others to use.
+
+If you find Octave useful, consider providing additional funding to
+continue its development.  Even a modest amount of additional funding
+could make a significant difference in the amount of time that is
+available for development and support.
+
+If you cannot provide funding or contribute code, you can still help
+make Octave better and more reliable by reporting any bugs you find and
+by offering suggestions for ways to improve Octave.  @xref{Trouble}, for
+tips on how to write useful bug reports.
+
+@node Distribution,  , How You Can Contribute to Octave, Preface
+@unnumberedsec Distribution
+@cindex distribution of Octave
+
+Octave is @dfn{free} software.  This means that everyone is free to
+use it and free to redistribute it on certain conditions.  Octave is not
+in the public domain.  It is copyrighted and there are restrictions on
+its distribution, but the restrictions are designed to ensure that
+others will have the same freedom to use and redistribute Octave that
+you have.  The precise conditions can be found in the GNU General Public
+License that comes with Octave and that also appears in @ref{Copying}.
+
+Octave is available on CD-ROM with various collections of other free
+software, and from the Free Software Foundation.  Ordering a copy of
+Octave from the Free Software Foundation helps to fund the development
+of more free software.  For more information, write to
+
+@quotation
+Free Software Foundation@*
+59 Temple Place---Suite 330@*
+Boston, MA 02111--1307@*
+USA
+@end quotation
+ 
+Octave is also available on the Internet from
+@url{ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave}, and additional information is
+available from @url{http://www.che.wisc.edu/octave}.