Matlab compatibilty issues

[sztaasz]

Hello all,

I am lately trying to find a free/open source alternative for Matlab.
I saw octave is making good efforts at it and i like qtoctave.
I send this mail in hope it might help to improve octave in its next 
release. It is by no means a way to ask for help or advise on how to 
improve/correct the performance of my software or ask why some things 
are not working.
Ok i know it would have been better to write down which bits of code 
create the mess but i am all knew to octave so this bug report  
describes a problem i see rather than pointing at the problem.
Apart a little bit of matlab i know nothing of coding (so in other words 
i don't know why for example i write in my script "grid on" but i dont 
see it in the figure from octave).

Anyway here are some "major" problems i encountered while trying to run 
some Matlab scripts in octave.

I run the scripts via the Qtoctave GUI.
If for any reason you would need to run the scripts yourself you need to 
specify 2 inputs:
-data: the matrix generated from the import data dialog (file 
Phe_Ant.txt) in Matlab (tab is delimiter)
-textdata: the cell matrix (headers data) generated from the (same as 
above) import data dialog (file Phe_Ant.txt) in Matlab (tab is delimiter)
The file Phe_Ant.txt was created from openoffice.calc with export/save 
command

Running the script ccc.m gives me the results  as follows:
octgnuplot.png when run and saved from qtoctave
matlab1.png  when run and saved from matlab
xfig.png when exported from qtoctave to a fig file (shown as png here)

Specifically in octave graph there is no grid, title, and text labels 
(lines 68, 67 and 71-77 of ccc.m respectively). Interestingly, giving 
the command "grid on" after the figure is produced puts a grid on the 
figure.
The use of different symbols i dont regard it as a bug.
But the colors that symbols have (lines 22 & 25) i do, as well the line 
that is not dashed (line 43).
Tick label "Coals  & Peat" does not appear in octave graph but it does 
appear in the xfig

Running the script Phe_ANt.m (which btw it is exactly the same as ccc.m 
except it uses semilogx)
octave gives the following error(and ouputs no graphics):

----------------------------------------------------

octave:13>

Phe_ANt

octave:14>warning: set: invalid property `fontsize'

warning: set: invalid property `fontweight'

error: concatenation operator not implemented for `cell' by `sq_string' 
operati

ons

error: evaluating argument list element number 1

error: near line 67 of file `Phe_ANt.m'

line 14895: x range must be greater than 0 for log scale

octave:15>

------------------------------------------------------------



%%% System details %%%:
Ubuntu 8.10
Octave 3.01
Qtoctave 0.74
gnuplot 4.2 patchlevel 3
xfig 3.2 patchlevel 5
Matlab R2007a

%%% Attached files: %%%
Phe_Ant.txt
ccc.m
Phe_Ant.m
octgnuplot.png
matlab1.png
xfig.png


%% I have the feeling that if octave uses a figure manipulation utility, 
such as xfig for example, that has many options to modify/add 
features/text in an image, it will really excel in ease of use and 
drawing capabilities. Given that the quality of images does not get 
degraded as in my example.

Thank you for your patience,

Sztaasz

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