plotting in Octave

[Ben Abbott]

On Nov 22, 2008, at 12:29 AM, Robert Fong-tom wrote:

> I finally was successful in porting Octave via macports and all seems
> to be well. However, now I can't plot. The error I get is:
>
> gnuplot: unable to open display ':0'
> gnuplot: X11 aborted.
>
> I had this problem before when I had installed Octave via the binary
> dmg file at SourceForge, and as far as I can tell the .profile, shown
> below, file is correct. Any thoughts?
>
> # Make X11 the default
> export GNUTERM=x11
> robert-fong-toms-computer:~ robert$ cat .profile
> # Make X11 the default
> export GNUTERM=x11
>
> ##
> # Your previous /Users/robert/.profile file was backed up as /Users/
> robert/.profile.macports-saved_2008-11-20_at_19:39:45
> ##
>
> # MacPorts Installer addition on 2008-11-20_at_19:39:45: adding an
> appropriate PATH variable for use with MacPorts.
> export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
> # Finished adapting your PATH environment variable for use with
> MacPorts.
>
>
> # MacPorts Installer addition on 2008-11-20_at_19:39:45: adding an
> appropriate DISPLAY variable for use with MacPorts.
> export DISPLAY=:0
> # Finished adapting your DISPLAY environment variable for use with
> MacPorts.
>
> Bob


What do you get when you type the following into Octave's window?

system ("echo $DISPLAY");
system ("echo $GNUTERM");

For me, I get

octave:4> system ("echo $DISPLAY");
:0.0
octave:5> system ("echo $GNUTERM");
aqua
octave:6>

I assume you are still running OSX 10.4.x ?

I'm not familiar with what MacPorts installs for octave. Did you start  
a Terminal window and type "octave" into it?

Have you tried starting an xterm window and running octave from there?

You do have X11 installed correct?

Ben