The student reports that he has gone to the Octave homepage, and the Source Forge download page, and clicked to download
octave-3.0.0-ppc.dmg
The download took place and there is a 'source forge' icon on his desktop. He sent me an email saying, I think, that clicking on this icon produces the following ...
Package Release (date) Filename Size (bytes) Downloads Architecture Type
Totals: 8 16 418483325 20394 Octave Forge Mac
Latest 2007-12-23 binary of Octave 3.0.0 Notes (2007-12-23 06:55)
octave-3.0.0-i386.dmg Mirror 27488354 6551 i386 .dmg
octave-3.0.0-ppc.dmg Mirror 28047650 2498 PPC .dmg
2007-12-08 binary of Octave 2.9.18 Notes (2007-12-08 05:56)
2007-11-11 binary of Octave 2.9.17 Notes (2007-11-11 08:20)
2007-11-02 binary of Octave 2.9.16 Notes (2007-11-02 12:09)
2007-10-14 binary of Octave 2.9.15 Notes (2007-10-14 11:28)
2007-09-22 binary of Octave 2.9.14 Notes (2007-09-21 15:49)
2007-07-28 binary of Octave 2.9.13 Notes (2007-07-28 08:37)
So ... what should have happened after the download was complete. What should appear on the student's computer. What should the student do to get the program installed.
I'll repeat, someone should create pages for installng Octave on Windows and Mac computers that gives step by step directions for getting the program running on the user's computer, and without leaving out any steps or assuming that 'everyone knows how to do that'.
I recall that I had problems trying to install it on my XP and just kept futzing around until it finally worked. There were no 'directions' on SourceForge or anywhere else that I could find.
This should be easy, not a scavenger hunt.