Added callout box linking to Octave

[franktoffel]

This is just a draft but I think it would be nice to reference GNU Octave in the lessons. It seems that the outputs are indeed obtained from Octave instead of MATLAB. See Issue for more information #37

If there is a better format that {.challenge} for this callout, please let me know 👀

[shwina]

Hi @franktoffel - this is a great idea. Learners might have trouble setting up MATLAB before/on the day of the workshop, and Octave is a handy replacement.

The correct tag, I think, is {.callout}. Please see here

Also, I'd rather that we not have this line:

The outputs and figures of these lessons were in fact obtained with GNU Octave.

Mainly because this may change, and new contributors may use MATLAB-generated figures instead.

[franktoffel]

You are right @ashwinsrnth. I edited the callout and now should be fine to merge.

[BernhardKonrad]

That's great! +1 for merge.

[shwina]

I'm happy with this, but maybe we can incorporate one more change - rather than saying,

Thus, you won't need any commercial license to learn the language albeit we will
be using the name of MATLAB.

can we instead have something like

If you don't have access to MATLAB, you can easily set up Octave on your computer and still work through most of the lesson.

My rationale is that there might be other reasons that learners might not be able to work with MATLAB than not having access to a license.

[franktoffel]

Hi @ashwinsrnth, thanks for the feedback (again). Why do you imply that Octave will work through most of the lesson?
At the moment, the lesson seems to be 100% compatible (as I said, figures and outputs seem to be taken from Octave). Is this going to change?
IMHO I belive that it may be better to work a little bit harder and keep the lessons ready for both, MATLAB and Octave.

[BernhardKonrad]

I would even argue that it should be a requirement for our MATLAB lessons that they work just as well in Octave.

[gvwilson]

On the other hand, in 17 years, I've never met anyone who used Octave who wasn't already a committed open sourcer and a competent programmer - I think the overwhelming majority of people we want to reach use brand-name MATLAB, just as almost every scientist who's doing things with spreadsheets uses brand-name Excel.

[shwina]

@franktoffel @BernhardKonrad

While I agree with you, I also think @gvwilson is right (I made an argument similar to yours to him a few months ago :-)

Wherever possible, I think we can have callout boxes, etc., pointing to "how to do it with Octave", but I don't think we should promise full compatibility. For instance, we're hoping to have a section on debugging soon, and if I recall correctly, that's done a bit differently on Octave.

[franktoffel]

This is more a fundamental question. I completely agree with you (@gvwilson and @ashwinsrnth) regarding how famous "MATLAB" is and I never suggested to change the name of it for that reason.

BUT, in my opinion teaching people how to use a commercial product when there is a compatible an excellent alternative (Octave)... makes me wonder why.

For instance, @ashwinsrnth why do you want to teach how to use the debugger instead of going to the excellent documentation of the product?
http://es.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/debugging-process-and-features.html

Assuming we are talking to beginners, the concepts of debugging (breakpoints, step in/out, etc) seem to work in the same way as MATLAB does with the new Octave version:
http://www.walkingrandomly.com/?p=5336

Doesn't make more sense to create content which is product-free, especially for beginners?

[shwina]

@franktoffel

I think you make fair points, and I was wrong in thinking that MATLAB and Octave have different debugging commands. As you say, the lessons are currently 100% compatible with Octave, and will probably stay that way. I will change my suggested change from:

If you don't have access to MATLAB, you can easily set up Octave on your computer and still work through most of the lesson.

to

If you don't have access to MATLAB, you can easily set up Octave on your computer and still work through the lesson.

If compatibility issues ever arise, we'll tackle the problem then :-)

[IsaKiko]

We might soon(ish) try and run a course in octave. I'll let you know if we run into compatibility issues.

[franktoffel]

Changes performed according to @ashwinsrnth suggestions ;)

[shwina]

Thanks, @franktoffel!

[franktoffel]

A pleasure, @ashwinsrnth! I also learnt a few new things about Octave doing this PR and arguing about it :)