Octave

[daacosta]

I am currently University class dealing with Optimization of Chemical Processes. Recently I posted requesting some sort of replacement of CPLEX for such a task (The post disappeared or was erased, or... I don't know...) I started using Octave because a friend told me that Octave did have some CPLEX modules and that if they were absent he would be more than willing to help me out (He is a PhD candidate in Computer Science and he is building a compiler...)

I need Octave to solve ODEs and my, oh my! I can't believe how easy it was to start solving specific problems for my course (I haven't used MatLab but I understand is quite similar to Octave) on optimization. Then I asked: how can I use this tool for chaos? and started playing with Octave to model Lorenz attractors...

THIS IS BIG!

That one can use free software to learn and teach advanced concepts in Engineering is so cool!

I can't wait to lecture on Monday!

[bidi]

Yep, I've used it on and off for a few years now. I got a ME and we have to use MATLAB for a lot of stuff, not to mention I use it at work. Not wanting to be tied to MathWorks I started giving Octave a shot. It's great because you get to create stuff pretty much anywhere. While most people at school had to either be at school and buy MATLAB in order to do most of our work I could do it at home watching TV. The only thing I miss from MATLAB is Simulink, and trust me, once you use that, you will not want to go back to text mode. Solving ODEs in Simulink is just getting the Laplace Transform then throwing some blocks on the screen, you should give it a shot. I would really like to see someone create a free implementation of it (I wish I had the know how to do it).