[Blindmath] Octave

[Jonathan Godfrey]

Hi Dick,

Octave was introduced as an alternative to MATLAB at the 2011 Summer 
University in the Czech Republic. I gather that workshop was run in 
the previous year as well.

My, and other similar universities, will not use Octave in preference 
to MATLAB as the engineers use functionality that is not currently 
available in Octave. This limits its usefulness as substitute 
software for the less accessible MATLAB.

I think that Octave is certainly a tool that should be included in 
the list of freeware any intending mathematics student should be 
acquiring prior to heading to university. I put it on the list with 
Maxima, not far behind R (OK, a fair way behind, but certainly a great option).

I'm not sure about calling it a teaching tool, unless you would call 
other software a teaching tool. Certainly a very useful calculator 
especially for vector and matrix based problems.

I think Maxima offers a better solution for anyone wanting to do 
calculations in differential calculus from an access point of view.

I can't comment on the graphing capability of either Octave or MATLAB 
as I always use R for anything graphical.

Jonathan


At 05:13 a.m. 26/04/2012, you wrote:
>I recently became aware of an interactive programming environment named
>Octave, which is apparently a free open-source alternative to matlab.
>
>It contains many powerful functions, particularly in the area of linear
>algebra, matrix algebra, etc.
>
>It also makes it possible to easily create graphs, which could probably be
>sonified using the voice software.
>
>It seems to work well with NVDA with the ''all punctuation' preference set.
>
>I was wondering if it has been considered as a tool for teaching math to
>blind and VI students.
>
>Dick Baldwin
>
>--
>Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
>Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
>http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>
>Professor of Computer Information Technology
>Austin Community College
>(512) 223-4758
>mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
>http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
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_____
Dr A. Jonathan R. Godfrey
Lecturer in Statistics
Institute of Fundamental Sciences
Massey University
Palmerston North

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