How to actually change octave's LOADPATH?

[Juan Florentino]

Greetings,

This is kind of a newbie question: I am using Octave
2.1.73 from within cygwin (I am using windows xp service pack 2). I
would like to point to a directory different than the one in which
octave is stored to use my own functions.
I read in several places that I "just" need to add a  line to the
octaverc file but I have tried several things but am still unable to
call any functions.

this is the default directory: 

C:\cygwin\usr\share\octave\2.1

.73\m

and this is the extra directory I would like to point to:

D:\Quantum-Octave

This is what I tried among others in octaverc but it did not work:

LOADPATH = [LOADPATH,
":/cygdrive/D/Quantum-Octave//"];

I would greatly appreciate any help to find the solution,
Juan