Instructions for installing Octave on Windows NT/95 systems using the
beta 19 release of the gnu-win32 tools from Cygnus Support.

1. Install the Cygnus gnu-win32 tools.  You only need the user tools,
   but you can install the full development kit instead (either will
   work -- the development kit contains all the user tools plus the
   GNU compilers and other development tools that are not needed to
   just run Octave).  The gnu-win32 tools are available from
   ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/gnu-win32/latest, and also from
   ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave/BINARIES/gnu-win32.

     * Download usertools.exe or cdk.exe.

     * Install the tools by running the file usertools.exe (or
       cdk.exe) and following the directions.  The default install
       location is /gnuwin32/b19 (the rest of the examples in this
       document assume that you've used the default location).

     * Create a /bin directory and put a copy of sh.exe there.  You
       can find the sh.exe file in /gnuwin32/b19/H-i386-cygwin32/bin.

     * Create a /tmp directory.

     * Add

         C:\gnuwin32\b19\H-i386-cygwin32\bin 

       to your $PATH.

     * Create a /etc directory and put a copy of the termcap file
       there.  If you installed the full development kit, you can find 
       a termcap file in the directory /gnuwin32/b19/H-i386-cygwin32/etc.
       If you just installed the user tools, you can get a copy of the
       termcap file on the Octave ftp site at
       ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave/BINARIES/gnu-win32/termcap

2. Install less for gnuwin32.  A copy is available from
   ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave/BINARIES/gnu-win32

     * Download the file less-gnu-win32.tar.gz.

     * Install it along with the gnu-win32 tools.  Change your
       directory to /gnuwin32/b19/H-i386-cygwin32 and untar the
       less-gnu-win32.tar.gz file (bash syntax):

         tar zxf /path/to/less-gnu-win32.tar.gz

     * Setting the environment variable TERM to linux will allow less
       to work in a bash terminal window and from within Octave.

3. Install Octave.

     * Download the file octave-2.0.12-i386-pc-cygwin32.tar.gz from 
       ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave/BINARIES/gnu-win32.

     * Untar the distribution:

         tar zxf octave-2.0.12-i386-pc-cygwin32.tar.gz

       The files will be unpacked into a subdirectory called
       octave-2.0.12-i386-pc-cygwin32.

     * Change your directory to octave-2.0.12-i386-pc-cygwin32 and
       install the files using the command ./install-octave (running
       bash).

     * The default installation directory is /octave.  If you choose
       a different installation directory, you will have to set the
       environment variable OCTAVE_HOME to the name of that directory
       (using Unix file name syntax) in order for Octave to work.

     * Add C:\octave\bin to your path.

     * Setting the environment variable TERM to linux will allow less
       to work from within Octave.

     * Optionally set the environment variables HOME (for your home
       direoctory using Unix file name syntax) and USER (for your user
       name).

4. Octave requires gnuplot for plotting.  You can get a copy of
   gnuplot 3.5 for Windows from ftp://ftp.dartmouth.edu/pub/gnuplot.
   Octave works better with recent beta versions of gnuplot 3.6,
   however, so you might want to get a copy of that from the
   development ftp site, cmpc1.phys.soton.ac.uk.

   To make either version of gnuplot for Windows work with Octave, you
   will need a simple wrapper program so that Octave can open a pipe
   to communicate with the Windows version of gnuplot.

     * Get a copy of pipe-gnuplot.exe (or, if you want to compile it
       yourself, the corresponding source file pipe-gnuplot.c) from
       ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave/BINARIES/gnu-win32.

     * Install pipe-gnuplot.exe somewhere in your PATH.

     * In Octave, set the variable gnuplot_binary to point to the
       pipe-gnuplot program

         gnuplot_binary = "pipe-gnuplot /gnuplot/wgnuplot"

       You should replace /gnuplot/wgnuplot with the actual name of
       your real gnuplot binary (it must not contain spaces, though,
       or you may need to do some quoting).

   Now you should be able to generate plots from the Octave prompt.


Eventually, I hope to automate most of this process and make it much
simpler.  Please contact me if you are interested in helping out with
this task.

Thanks,

John W. Eaton
jwe@bevo.che.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Department of Chemical Engineering

Tue May 19 22:50:09 1998