7 ms·

Octave for Android

96 points by bshanks 14y ago

bshanks 14y ago
Thanks to mjcohen for posting about this ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5198369 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5198369 ).
qompiler 14y ago
Just what I expected, an uninspired port. The interface is.. terrible..
- michael_h 14y ago
  Any suggestions for improving it?
  - qompiler 14y ago
    Take a look at Calculator++ https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Calculator%2B%2B&c=apps https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Calculator%2B%2B&... Also look at how Maple 16 does it. The keyword here is 'buttons'.
    - AlexeyBrin 14y ago
      You are confusing Octave (which is a Matlab substitute where you "write" in a command window, not so much use for "buttons") with Maple ... Please stop trolling.
    - qompiler 14y ago
      I'm not trolling (intentionally), just pointing out how a nice user interface makes the difference between crapps and apps.
- lucian1900 14y ago
  Feel free to write a UI that wraps it.
- VLM 14y ago
  I use octave quite a bit by SSH via connectbot to a linux box and there is no visual difference between native octave port and connecting via SSH for text-mode. I don't graph what I'm working on very much so the graphics mode doesn't matter... although I do have a VNC client.. However, connectbot is 676 precious K of storage vs 22 megs for the native port, and I can do a lot more once connected via connectbot than just octave. I can't afford to use the native port, which is too bad.
pav3l 14y ago
Ask HN: Who uses Octave? If you had access to Matlab, would you use it instead? Why not Python/R/Julia?
- esolyt 14y ago
  I would use it to open other people's MatLab work if it was 100% compatible. Unfortunately it isn't.
  - forkandwait 14y ago
    What incompatibilities do you see? There is something with if conditions, but otherwise it has been spot on with me. I use matlab code all the time.
    - Anechoic 14y ago
      There are a number of incompatibilities caused by outright different function names ("tfeestimate" in Matlab vs "tfe" in Octave for transfer function computations for example) or the order of input arguments in functions. Also, there are several functions in Matlab that don't exist yet in Octave. Try downloading the AbraVibe collection of functions at http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=index&bcsId=6320&itemId=0470746440 http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=index&bcsId=632... and running them on Octave. Some of those functions require modification before they will run, especially functions generating graphical output.
      - forkandwait 14y ago
        Interesting. I find with small utilities that I download, Octave runs matlab fine. With bigger things (optimization packages in my case) you do hit incompatibilities. I guess I don't use the latter that much.
- forkandwait 14y ago
  You would use Octave instead of Matlab because it is free as opposed to $1000 for a basic license plus additional $$ for every time you sneeze and need a toolbox. You would use Octave/ Matlab instead of Julia, R or Python because Matlab syntax is the cleanest and most succinct way currently to articulate complex (in both senses) matrix algorithms. It isn't nearly as good for general programming, but it is much better than anything else for its niche. While some of that is obviously just fuzzy opinion, I am pretty sure you need fewer characters or LOC to say the same thing in Matlab than in the other scientific languages mentioned. Matlab (and thus Octave) also has a HUGE installed base of engineers who don't really care that HN thinks the language du jour is X, Y, or Z and continue to use Matlab to get their work done (and will for the next 20 years). If you are working with them, you use Matlab. If you are working with them and don't have $1000 for a license, you use Octave. Octave also has some syntactical improvements like "+=" that are missing in Matlab.
AlexeyBrin 14y ago
Looks neat on my Nexus 7! I'm curious what they've used to replace the Gnuplot functionality from the original.
- maxerickson 14y ago
  The author has some other apps in the store, including a gnuplot port. One of them appears to wrap octave and gnuplot in a more native interface: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addi https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addi
- corbinlc 14y ago
  Download droidplot. It is a port of gnuplot for Android.
japaget 14y ago
See also "Octave Remote" for iOS in the Apple App Store. It connects to a server running in the "cloud", but unfortunately the connection times out when running under iOS 6.
christopheraden 14y ago
The interesting bit about this to me is not the interface, but the fact that they got it running on Android. I was curious in seeing if R could be ported to Android a few years back, and thought I remember reading there were some roadblocks pertaining to getting a decent BLAS to work on Android and iOS (which doesn't have a fortran compiler, iirc). The fact that Octave runs on Android means they must've figured out how to get a BLAS running on Android. Does anyone know what it's running? NetLib?
- michael_h 14y ago
  Not having a fortran compiler isn't really a roadblock as you can use f2c to get C code, which is IIRC how we got CBLAS.
- AlexeyBrin 14y ago
  You can easily build a Fortran compiler for Android, the NDK source code is available and it contains gfortran. The official binary NDK however has only gcc and g++ build. BLAS and Lapack can be compiled natively for Android with gfortran.
  - christopheraden 14y ago
    Thanks for the info. I'll have to check this out.
  - compilercreator 14y ago
    Which BLAS though? The reference BLAS implementation? That will have terrible performance. Would be interested to see if something better like ATLAS or OpenBLAS can be compiled for it. Recent versions of ATLAS do work on ARM Linux, so wondering if those can be easily ported to Android.
    - AlexeyBrin 14y ago
      Reference BLAS ...
clebio 14y ago
This begs the question for me, could the ipython HTML notebook* be wrapped in an Android app? * http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/interactive/htmlnotebook.html http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/interactive/htmlnotebook....
- hvs 14y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
  - clebio 14y ago
    Fair enough, I used the wrong phrase. On the other hand, yours is the second reply pointing this out. Only one reply addressing the actual question I raised. I suppose I could go hang out on a logic and rhetoric forum, but that's not really my focus. Innovation and technical solutions for hard problems is. Ach schade.
    - hvs 14y ago
      Mine was the first response, and I only presented the link for your information. I don't care one way or another how you use it.
- meemo 14y ago
  begs the question -> raises the question
- yareally 14y ago
  Perhaps[1], but have never tried. [1] http://code.google.com/p/python-for-android/ http://code.google.com/p/python-for-android/
jrl 14y ago
Octave is a nice language for doing matrix operations, I'm glad someone made a port for Android.

96 points by bshanks 14y ago

Thanks to mjcohen for posting about this ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5198369 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5198369 ).

qompiler 14y ago

Just what I expected, an uninspired port. The interface is.. terrible..

michael_h 14y ago
Any suggestions for improving it?
- qompiler 14y ago
  Take a look at Calculator++ https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Calculator%2B%2B&c=apps https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Calculator%2B%2B&... Also look at how Maple 16 does it. The keyword here is 'buttons'.
  - AlexeyBrin 14y ago
    You are confusing Octave (which is a Matlab substitute where you "write" in a command window, not so much use for "buttons") with Maple ... Please stop trolling.
  - qompiler 14y ago
    I'm not trolling (intentionally), just pointing out how a nice user interface makes the difference between crapps and apps.
lucian1900 14y ago
Feel free to write a UI that wraps it.
VLM 14y ago
I use octave quite a bit by SSH via connectbot to a linux box and there is no visual difference between native octave port and connecting via SSH for text-mode. I don't graph what I'm working on very much so the graphics mode doesn't matter... although I do have a VNC client.. However, connectbot is 676 precious K of storage vs 22 megs for the native port, and I can do a lot more once connected via connectbot than just octave. I can't afford to use the native port, which is too bad.

pav3l 14y ago

Ask HN: Who uses Octave? If you had access to Matlab, would you use it instead? Why not Python/R/Julia?

esolyt 14y ago
I would use it to open other people's MatLab work if it was 100% compatible. Unfortunately it isn't.
- forkandwait 14y ago
  What incompatibilities do you see? There is something with if conditions, but otherwise it has been spot on with me. I use matlab code all the time.
  - Anechoic 14y ago
    There are a number of incompatibilities caused by outright different function names ("tfeestimate" in Matlab vs "tfe" in Octave for transfer function computations for example) or the order of input arguments in functions. Also, there are several functions in Matlab that don't exist yet in Octave. Try downloading the AbraVibe collection of functions at http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=index&bcsId=6320&itemId=0470746440 http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=index&bcsId=632... and running them on Octave. Some of those functions require modification before they will run, especially functions generating graphical output.
    - forkandwait 14y ago
      Interesting. I find with small utilities that I download, Octave runs matlab fine. With bigger things (optimization packages in my case) you do hit incompatibilities. I guess I don't use the latter that much.
forkandwait 14y ago
You would use Octave instead of Matlab because it is free as opposed to $1000 for a basic license plus additional $$ for every time you sneeze and need a toolbox. You would use Octave/ Matlab instead of Julia, R or Python because Matlab syntax is the cleanest and most succinct way currently to articulate complex (in both senses) matrix algorithms. It isn't nearly as good for general programming, but it is much better than anything else for its niche. While some of that is obviously just fuzzy opinion, I am pretty sure you need fewer characters or LOC to say the same thing in Matlab than in the other scientific languages mentioned. Matlab (and thus Octave) also has a HUGE installed base of engineers who don't really care that HN thinks the language du jour is X, Y, or Z and continue to use Matlab to get their work done (and will for the next 20 years). If you are working with them, you use Matlab. If you are working with them and don't have $1000 for a license, you use Octave. Octave also has some syntactical improvements like "+=" that are missing in Matlab.

AlexeyBrin 14y ago

Looks neat on my Nexus 7! I'm curious what they've used to replace the Gnuplot functionality from the original.

maxerickson 14y ago
The author has some other apps in the store, including a gnuplot port. One of them appears to wrap octave and gnuplot in a more native interface: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addi https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addi
corbinlc 14y ago
Download droidplot. It is a port of gnuplot for Android.

japaget 14y ago

See also "Octave Remote" for iOS in the Apple App Store. It connects to a server running in the "cloud", but unfortunately the connection times out when running under iOS 6.

christopheraden 14y ago

The interesting bit about this to me is not the interface, but the fact that they got it running on Android. I was curious in seeing if R could be ported to Android a few years back, and thought I remember reading there were some roadblocks pertaining to getting a decent BLAS to work on Android and iOS (which doesn't have a fortran compiler, iirc). The fact that Octave runs on Android means they must've figured out how to get a BLAS running on Android. Does anyone know what it's running? NetLib?

michael_h 14y ago
Not having a fortran compiler isn't really a roadblock as you can use f2c to get C code, which is IIRC how we got CBLAS.
AlexeyBrin 14y ago
You can easily build a Fortran compiler for Android, the NDK source code is available and it contains gfortran. The official binary NDK however has only gcc and g++ build. BLAS and Lapack can be compiled natively for Android with gfortran.
- christopheraden 14y ago
  Thanks for the info. I'll have to check this out.
- compilercreator 14y ago
  Which BLAS though? The reference BLAS implementation? That will have terrible performance. Would be interested to see if something better like ATLAS or OpenBLAS can be compiled for it. Recent versions of ATLAS do work on ARM Linux, so wondering if those can be easily ported to Android.
  - AlexeyBrin 14y ago
    Reference BLAS ...

clebio 14y ago

This begs the question for me, could the ipython HTML notebook* be wrapped in an Android app? * http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/interactive/htmlnotebook.html http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/interactive/htmlnotebook....

hvs 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
- clebio 14y ago
  Fair enough, I used the wrong phrase. On the other hand, yours is the second reply pointing this out. Only one reply addressing the actual question I raised. I suppose I could go hang out on a logic and rhetoric forum, but that's not really my focus. Innovation and technical solutions for hard problems is. Ach schade.
  - hvs 14y ago
    Mine was the first response, and I only presented the link for your information. I don't care one way or another how you use it.
meemo 14y ago
begs the question -> raises the question
yareally 14y ago
Perhaps[1], but have never tried. [1] http://code.google.com/p/python-for-android/ http://code.google.com/p/python-for-android/

jrl 14y ago

Octave is a nice language for doing matrix operations, I'm glad someone made a port for Android.