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GNU Octave Beginner's Guide
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Octave is primarily designed to run under GNU/Linux. However, you can also run Octave under Windows with only a few glitches here and there. The installation procedure, runs very smoothly under Windows. Let us start with this.
Installing Octave on Windows is straightforward. The steps are as follows:
README file, and if not, simply uncheck the box to the left of where you are asked whether you want to see the README file. Click Next, and you are done!This installation guide has been tested on 32-bit Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 7.
Notice that Octave's interactive environment (the Octave prompt) may be launched when the installer exits. To close this, simply type:
octave:1> exit
or press the Ctrl key and the D key at the same time. We shall write this combination as Ctrl + D. By the way, Ctrl + D is a UNIX end-of-file indicator and is often used as a shortcut for quitting programs in UNIX-type systems like GNU/Linux.

Alternatively, you can run Octave under Windows through Cygwin, which is similar to the GNU/Linux environment in Windows. I will not go through the installation of Cygwin here, but you may simply refer to the Cygwin web page http://www.cygwin.com.
If you install Octave version 3.2.4 under Windows, I strongly recommend that you leave out the oct2mat package. This package may prevent the plotting window to update properly. For instance, when you plot a graph, it will not appear in the plotting window. This is not an issue under GNU/Linux.
On many GNU/Linux distributions, Octave is a part of the standard software. Therefore, before installing Octave, check if it already exists on your computer. To do so, open a terminal, and type the following in the terminal shell:
$ octave
If Octave is installed (properly), you should now see Octave's command prompt. Now just exit by typing the following:
octave:1> exit
Alternatively, you may use CTRL + D, that is, press the control key and the D key at the same time.
If Octave is not installed, you can often use the distribution's package management system. For example, for Ubuntu, you can use the Synaptic Package Manager, which is a graphical tool to install and remove software on the computer. Please refer the following screenshot. In case of Fedora and CentOS, you can use YUM.
Make sure that your package manager also installs a plotting program with Octave, for example, gnuplot.

If you wish, you can also build Octave directly from the source code. However, I only recommend this if Octave is not available through the system's package manager. In order to build Octave from source, you will need (at least) the following:
Fortunately, these software packages usually come with most GNU/Linux distributions. If not, you should be able use the package manager to install them.
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