Re: Octave on Windows

[Michael Goffioul]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 5:39 PM, Divakar Ramachandran
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Is there someplace where the Windows specific directories / folders are
> described? I have been looking for info on the correct place to put the
> startup commands which on Linux / Unix systems go into .octave. By trial
> and error I have found that the file .octaverc is read and executed on
> startup on WinXP when placed directly at Documents and Settings\Username
> though there is a empty folder named octave at this location. Further,
> it is impossible to create a file named .octaverc through Win Explorer.
> I created a file octaverc using the GUI and subsequently renamed it
> to .octaverc using the command-line.
>
> Maybe this info can be put into the Wiki where it can be useful to other
> newbies like me.

Although this might not be obvious, octave does the same under Windows
than under Linux:
- it loads the system octaverc from the same location:
<octave_install_dir>/share/octave/3.0.1/m/startup/octaverc
- it loads the user .octaverc from the same location:
$HOME/.octaverc
- "edit" command uses the same default directory:
$HOME/octave

The problem is that the $HOME concept is not very common under
Windows. I'd say that the best way to find out where to put your
.octaverc is to type the following at octave prompt:

tilde_expand ('~\.octaverc')

For the problem of not being able to create a file named .octaverc
from Explorer, would I dare to say "Blame Microsoft!" :-)
More seriously, the question here is whether to introduce some
Windows-specific behavior in octave to work around a stupid
DOS-inherited problem of Explorer...

Michael.