Still need help installing Octave on a Mac

[Ben Abbott]

On Mar 27, 2008, at 9:22 PM, wdflannery at aol.com wrote:
> The student reports that he has gone to the Octave homepage, and the  
> Source Forge download page, and clicked to download
>
> octave-3.0.0-ppc.dmg
>
> The download took place and there is a 'source forge' icon on his  
> desktop.  He sent me an email saying, I think, that clicking on this  
> icon produces the following ...
>
> Package Release (date) Filename Size (bytes) Downloads Architecture  
> Type
> Totals: 8 16 418483325 20394 Octave Forge Mac
> Latest 2007-12-23 binary of Octave 3.0.0 Notes (2007-12-23 06:55)
>   octave-3.0.0-i386.dmg Mirror 27488354 6551 i386 .dmg
>   octave-3.0.0-ppc.dmg Mirror 28047650 2498 PPC .dmg
>   2007-12-08 binary of Octave 2.9.18 Notes (2007-12-08 05:56)
>   2007-11-11 binary of Octave 2.9.17 Notes (2007-11-11 08:20)
>   2007-11-02 binary of Octave 2.9.16 Notes (2007-11-02 12:09)
>   2007-10-14 binary of Octave 2.9.15 Notes (2007-10-14 11:28)
>   2007-09-22 binary of Octave 2.9.14 Notes (2007-09-21 15:49)
>   2007-07-28 binary of Octave 2.9.13 Notes (2007-07-28 08:37)
>
> So ... what should have happened after the download was complete.   
> What should appear on the student's computer.  What should the  
> student do to get the program installed.
>
> I'll repeat, someone should create pages for installng Octave on  
> Windows and Mac computers that gives step by step directions for  
> getting the program running on the user's computer, and without  
> leaving out any steps or assuming that 'everyone knows how to do  
> that'.
>
> I recall that I had problems trying to install it on my XP and just  
> kept futzing around until it finally worked.  There were no  
> 'directions' on SourceForge or anywhere else that I could find.
>
> This should be easy, not a scavenger hunt.

If the student has an Intel based Mac, download octave-3.0.0-i386.dmg   
and double-click (if needed).

If the student has an PPC based Mac, download octave-3.0.0-ppc.dmg   
and double-click (if needed).

Has your student ever installed software before?

Ben