GNU Octave 4.4.1 Released

[John W. Eaton]

The Octave developers are pleased to announce the release of GNU Octave, 
version 4.4.1.

Version 4.4.1 is a bug fixing release.  The bugs fixed in this release 
are listed at the end of this message.

We hope you find Octave to be useful.  Please help us make it even
better for the future!  See

  https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/get-involved.html

for ways you can become involved in Octave's development and

  https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/donate.html

for ways to donate to the project.

The source code for Octave 4.4.1 is available for download at:

   http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/octave
   ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/octave

  -rw-r--r-- 1 3003 3002 18965694 Aug 11 19:27 octave-4.4.1.tar.lz
  -rw-r--r-- 1 3003 3002 21633768 Aug 11 19:28 octave-4.4.1.tar.xz
  -rw-r--r-- 1 3003 3002 28626462 Aug 11 19:27 octave-4.4.1.tar.gz

md5sum:

  e0d9556caafd83e4276af49b06c5c994  octave-4.4.1.tar.lz
  3fd83526af469ee9ce6f7a21b57661c8  octave-4.4.1.tar.xz
  b43bd5f4309a0c048c91af10cf8e8674  octave-4.4.1.tar.gz

Please see http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html for mirror sites around the 
world.  Or you may use http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/octave, which will 
redirect automatically to a nearby mirror.

Binaries for Windows systems are available at

   http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/octave/windows
   ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/octave/windows

Links to binary (executable) versions for other systems will be listed 
at http://octave.org/download.html as they become available.

As always, many people contributed to this Octave release.  A complete 
list of contributors may be found in the Octave manual.


About Octave:

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.  A full description 
of Octave capabilities is available at 
http://octave.org/doc/interpreter/index.html.


Summary of bugs fixed for version 4.4.1:
---------------------------------------

Improvements:

  * disable compound binary operator optimization ([bug 
#54465](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54465))

  * Fix initial bracketing for fzero ([bug 
#54445](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54445)).

  * Fix scrolling command window in Windows 10 ([bug 
#52496](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?52496)).

  * Produce a single backtrace for global declaration overriding local 
variable.

  * revive 'setstr' ([bug #54417](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54417))

  * 'ode15i.m': In tests, use unlikely symbol name instead of "foo".

  * 'run.m': In test, use a symbol name that is unlikely to be a function.

  * avoid alignment warning on solaris systems ([bug 
#54389](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54389))

  * Improve error message if iconv is not available ([bug 
#54384](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54384)).

  * avoid error in gnulib wrapper on systems that don't have fpu 
control word

  * avoid unused variable warning on some systems

  * avoid fprintf format warning on some systems

  * eliminate unnecessary 'sun-utils.h' header file

  * 'index.tst': Make tests case insensitive for 'NaN', 'NA', 'Inf' 
values ([bug #54385](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54385)).

  * positive value from 'uname' can mean success ([bug 
#54235](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54235))

  * add some bug numbers to the test suite

  * consider any non-zero return from 'uname' to be failure ([bug 
#54235](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54235))

  * if freetype detection fails, unset 'FT2_*' config variables ([bug 
#54369](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54369))

  * Produce same random number stream for '"state"' initialized to 
'Inf' ([bug #54342](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54342)).

  * avoid crash when loading classdef objects ([bug 
#54319](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54319))

  * 'hist.m': Don't error out if called with identical 'Y' values ([bug 
#54326](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54326)).

  * Parse empty struct input correctly ([bug 
#54318](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54318)).

  * Fix regression in 4.2.0 which disallowed printing with some 
Ghostscript devices.

  * transform 'libiconv.dll.a' to '-liconv' for 'mkoctfile' ([bug 
#53920](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53920))

  * 'trapz.m': Overhaul function to fix errors with different 
orientations of X and Y ([bug 
#54277](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54277)).

  * Write audio OGG files in smaller chunk sizes ([bug 
#54280](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54280)).

  * Use LAPACK 'DTGSEN' subrouting for ordered-qz computation ([bug 
#53761](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53761))

  * Fix 'blkmm' to work with empty matrices ([bug 
#54261](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54261)).

  * use octave bat file in pkg install configure/make when in windows 
([bug #53938](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53938)).

  * 'repelem.m': Fix behavior when final repeat count is 0 ([bug 
#54275](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54275)).

  * '.hgsub': Use hg.octave.org instead of hg-new.octave.org

  * move some fortran and dynamic linking configure checks to separate 
macros

  * 'configure.ac': Reorder tests so that FPICFLAG is correctly set on 
Solaris ([bug #54235](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54235)).

  * 'eigs.m': Decrease opts.maxit in UnconvergedEigenvalues BIST ([bug 
#54179](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54179)).

  * fix ambiguous overload build error on Solaris ([bug 
#54217](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54217))

  * 'pkg.m': Restore ability to use file glob patterns when specifying 
local pkg files ([bug #54224](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54224)).

  * Use '%ld' format code in 'xerbla printf' ([bug 
#54206](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54206)).

  * use 'int' instead of 'size_t' for 'xerbla' string length ([bug 
#54206](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54206))

  * Pair 'fclose' with all 'fopen' and prevent 'file-io.cc' test fails 
([bug #54180](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54180)).

  * 'fsolve.m': Return 'info=1' when initial guess 'x0' is correct 
([bug #53991](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53991)).

  * 'fsolve.m': Add BIST test for [bug 
#53991](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53991).

  * 'fsolve.m': exit with 'info=-2' when singularity reached ([bug 
#53991](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53991)).

  * ensure that Make sees Octave exit status when running make check

  * 'interpreter.cc (intialize_xerbla_error_handler, xerbla_abort)': 
New functions.

  * improve warnings for global/local variable conflicts ([bug 
#54052](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54052))

  * maybe preserve local value when declaring variable global ([bug 
#54052](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54052))

  * fix regression in 'text' ([bug 
#54109](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54109))

  * create valid tmp scope for 'who -file' ([bug 
#54030](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54030))

  * 'polar.m': Correct axes limits when using negative rho values ([bug 
#53999](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53999)).

  * 'text.m': Fix regression when 'String' property is specified ([bug 
#54067](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54067)).

  * allow 'NULL mxArray*' to be returned as undefined from fcn calls 
([bug #54096](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54096))

  * treat 'NULL' as '[]' for 'mxSetFieldByNumber' and 'mxSetCell' ([bug 
#54096](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54096))

  * Properly test Qt offscreen printing during manual figures generation.

  * Avoid segfault with textscan ([bug 
#53786](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53786)).

  * add Qt include needed to build against Qt 5.11 ([bug 
#53978](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53978))

  * make listing local functions for command completion work again 
([bug #53925](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53925))

  * Stop segfault in debug mode with readline complete ([bug 
#53925](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53925)).

  * Remove code to install default colors for qt toolkit from window 
theme ([bug #53805](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53805)).

  * back out changes attempting to automatically call handle class 
destructor

  * 'residue.m': Use a pre-conditioner on final matrix division for 
numerical stability ([bug #53869](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53869))

  * track multiple file types '(oct|m|mex)' for private functions ([bug 
#53856](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53856))

  * also preserve temporaries in indexing expressions ([bug 
#53844](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53844))

  * also update load-path info if private subdir time stamp changes 
([bug #53856](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53856))

  * defer deletion of temporaries in argument lists ([bug 
#53844](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53844))

  * improve test for handle class destructor

  * call delete method correctly for handle class objects ([bug 
#53844](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53844))

  * use 'size_t' for f77 char arg length params with GCC 8 ([bug 
#53872](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53872))

  * Fix 'lrwork' dimension in svd for complex cases ([bug 
#53823](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53823)).

  * 'lines.m': Don't open empty figure or axes if none already exist 
([bug #53648](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53648))

GUI:

  * gui: fix editor rendering on some displays, disable QScintilla 
buffered drawing

Build system:

  * 'm4/octave_blas_f77_func.m4': Restore 64-bit integer BLAS detection 
([bug #53853](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53853)).

  * build: include 'inplace_edit.pl' in tarball ([bug 
#54349](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54349)).

  * fix test for 8-byte integer BLAS lib on big-endian systems ([bug 
#53853](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53853))

  * 'OCTAVE_CHECK_LIB': avoid shell syntax error if not checking for lib

  * build: avoid compiler warning about unused function 'abs' ([bug 
#54237](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54237))

  * build: Work around bug in perl 5.28.0 ([bug 
#54202](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54202)).

Documentation:

  * doc: Add version number to top title of HTML manual for clarity.

  * 'flip.m': Update docstring.

  * 'setdiff.m': Fix typo in documentation ([bug 
#54393](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54393)).

  * doc: Replace instances of realroot (non-existent) with realpow 
([bug #54336](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54336)).

  * 'HACKING.md': Update for recently removed files.

  * remove unused qtinfo source files

  * doc: Remove bad calling convention for warning with a mode struct 
([bug #54288](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54288))

  * Document work-around for disabling OpenGL software rendering ([bug 
#53845](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53845)).

  * 'xpow.cc (err_nonsquare_matrix)': Clarify error message ([bug 
#54248](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54248)).

  * doc: Miscellaneous documentation fixes all over the manual ([bug 
#54288](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54288)).

  * doc: small fixes to 'size' and 'plot.txi' ([bug 
#54283](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54283)).

  * doc: Clarify description of Example 4 for 'size' ([bug 
#54283](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54283)).

  * doc: Fix malformed URL ([bug 
#54225](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54225)).

  * Fix typo in error statement from containers.Map ([bug 
#54103](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54103)).

  * doc: Use 'qcode' macro to document 'fseek' offsets ([bug 
#51402](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?51402)).

  * Use correct abbreviation UTC for Coordinated Universal Time ([bug 
#53918](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53918)).

  * doc: Rewrite section on indexing for clarity ([bug 
#53675](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53675)).

  * 'md5sum.m': Fix error in sample code ([bug 
#53829](https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53829)).