Re: Symbolic package for Octave

[Nicholas Jankowski]

On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 11:25 AM, Pervin, William <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> I want to have my students use Octave in my Linear Algebra class and not have to buy MATLAB.
> So far I am able to install Octave so they should be able to do it also. We all use WINDOWS!
> I want to install the Symbolic package and don't know how. I have downloaded a file named:
> "symbolic-2.2.1.tar.gz" and put it everywhere I can find (octave,share,packages,octave-packages, etc.)
> and then do a "pkg install symbolic-2.2.1.tar.gz" as the documentation seems to say. I get the
> message "warning: file symbolic-23.2.1.tar.gz" does not exist". What is the correct, detailed way
> to install the Symbolic package? BTW, I don't even know what a .tar.gz file is (maybe zipped?)
> and I obviously don't know where to put it. Please give me some detailed instructions written
> for an Idiot.
>

First, you should be aware that the symbolic package may not yet give the level of Matlab compatibility that you get from the numerical side of Octave. I do see there have been quite a number of recent updates in the past few months, so hopefully this is improving. I know in the past help list emails have pointed users to Maxima or other Computer Algebra Software when symbolic solution is necessary. You may just have to try it out and see if it's sufficient for your class.

Second, the symbolic package depends on Python (and SymPy), and looks for a python installation when setting up the package. 

If you know you don't have Python, the package author has an alternative 'bundled' version you can get from:
https://github.com/cbm755/octsympy/releases

The file you would want is symbolic-win-py-bundle-2.2.1.zip

The package install procedure is the same for either one.

All that said, if you're getting a 'does not exist' error, likely Octave is not looking at the location where you saved the package, or there's a typo when you type the command. You can pretty much save the tar.gz file anywhere you want (it's a compressed file, like Zip, and Octave knows how to deal with it).

You can use the folder tree in the upper left of the Octave GUI to navigate to where you saved the file. alternatively you can use the cd command from the command line to get to that directory, pwd will tell you where you currently are, and dir will show the files in your currently location.

Once you get there, you should be able to type (or copy/paste):
pkg install -verbose symbolic-2.2.1.tar.gz

OR
pkg install -verbose symbolic-win-py-bundle-2.2.1.zip

depending on which one you need. note you can use TAB to autocomplete file & command names.

If something here isn't working for you, write back and let us know which part gives you problems.

Nick J.