Re: Cannot draw figures in Mac OS X

[Joe Koski]

As a octave user for 6 months on a Mac under OS X, I have learned much the
hard way. Here are some comments.

My experience is that figure() just sets the number of the output window
that will eventually be opened; it does not open a window immediately. With
the plot command, are you trying to actually plot something? For example

octave:1> x = rand(1:3);
octave:2> y = rand(1:3);
octave:3> plot(x,y);

Should plot three random points for you.

When running under X11, I usually start octave from an xterm (or rxvt)
window, and start entering octave commands. Once you enter a plot command, a
separate X11 window with the plot should appear if your installation is
correct.

On the Mac, there is an alternative graphics system called Aquaterm. If it
is on your computer, you can run octave from a standard terminal window and
have plots without needing X11, although X11 is also available if you
prefer. Check in the /sw/Applications folder to see if you have Aquaterm.
You may need to install octave-forge (also available on fink) to get it.

Finally, octave plots via a separate program called gnuplot. Just be aware
that octave is sending commands to a separate program, not generating the
plots directly within octave.

Overall, I find octave both powerful and easy to use, once you get some
experience

Good luck!

Joe Koski


on 2/17/04 7:08 PM, Anil Hirani at address@hidden wrote:

> I have installed octave on Mac OS X 10.3.2, using Fink. No figures are being
> drawn by octave. For example running the command "figure" returns "ans=1"
> and does not create a window. Similarly, "plot" does not create a window.
> In fact it appears to do nothing. My DISPLAY environment variable
> set to "localhost:0.0". When trying these commands, X11 is running.
> 
> Commands that do not require a graphical output appear to run fine.
> 
> Please help
> Anil
> 
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Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL.

Octave's home on the web:  http://www.octave.org
How to fund new projects:  http://www.octave.org/funding.html
Subscription information:  http://www.octave.org/archive.html
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