GNU Octave is a high-level interpreted language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It provides capabilities for the numerical solution of linear and nonlinear problems, and for performing other numerical experiments. It also provides extensive graphics capabilities for data visualization and manipulation. Octave is normally used through its interactive command line interface, but it can also be used to write non-interactive programs. The Octave language is quite similar to Matlab so that most programs are easily portable.
Octave is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
February 26, 2013 — Google Summer of Code
Octave was selected as a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code program for 2014. We have participated in the past as part of the GNU Project but this is the first year that we have been a mentoring organization.
Interested students who meet the requirements listed on the GSoC web site are encouraged to apply (see the Students and Eligibility section). Please also note the guidelines for Octave.
December 31, 2013 — Octave 3.8.0 Released
Octave 3.8.0 is a major new release and is now available for download.
One of the biggest new features for Octave 3.8 is a graphical user interface. It is the one thing that users have requested most often over the last few years and now it is almost ready. But because it is not quite as polished as we would like, we have decided to wait until the 4.0.x release series before making the GUI the default interface (until then, you can use the --force-gui option to start the GUI).
Given the length of time and the number of bug fixes and improvements since the last major release Octave, we also decided against delaying the release any longer. So please enjoy the 3.8 release of Octave and the preview of the new GUI. We believe it is working reasonably well, but we also know that there are some obvious rough spots and many things that could be improved.
We need your help. There are many ways that you can help us fix the remaining problems, complete the GUI, and improve the overall user experience for both novices and experts alike:
- If you are a skilled software developer, you can help by contributing your time to help with Octave's development.
- If Octave does not work properly, you are encouraged to report the problems you find.
- Whether you are a user or developer, you can help to fund the project. Octave development takes a lot of time and expertise. Your contributions help Octave continue to improve.
We hope you find Octave to be useful. Please help us make it even better for the future!
See the NEWS file for a more complete list of user-visible changes.