Re: Newbie question on solving simple equations

[Francesco Potorti`]

>I tried to solve a trivial equation:
>
>8 = 2 * x + 4
>
>what is x?

You want symbolic equation solving.  Octave is not made for it, event
though it has an optional symbolic package that can do some symbolic
computations.  However this makes sense only if you use Octave for what
it does best, that is numeric computations, and you need the occasional
symbolic computation.

For a symbolic package, you could try Maxima.

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