Instructions for installing Octave in Mac OS 10.3

These instructions are for Mac users who have not previously set their computer up to run X Windows (unix) software on their machines. Octave is such a piece of software, and installs/runs very nicely in unix/linux systems where X windows is a native window manager. X windows is not native to the Mac operating system, however, nor to Microsoft Windows, and thus to get the software and make it usable requires a (very large) set of software packages that allow X windows to be emulated in this non-native environment. What follows is a process that worked for me, and I hope it can work for you as well. Please note that the sum total of downloaded files is very large (perhaps up to 1 Gb), and a high-speed internet connection is practically a must.

First, you need an X11 developers system. You should have all the necessary packages on your Panther CDs. The relevant ones are Apple's X11 (on the Panther CD), XCode and X11SDK (both found on the Xcode Tools CD).
If you cannot locate these discs, it is possible, though more painful, to obtain the software over the internet direct from Apple. Apple seems willing to let you have X11 (scroll to the bottom of the screen) by just supplying a bit of contact information. The Xcode Tools package appears to contain X11SDK.pkg, but Apple asks that you join their “Developer Connection” (it's free, but there's a lengthy license agreement if you read such things) in order to get them. If you haven't installed an OS X package before, it's pretty easy: double click the .dmg files that you downloaded, and a Finder window will come up. Double click on a .pkg file, and it will install. The ones to install are X11User.pkg and Developer.mpkg.
Now download and install fink.
Open a terminal window. (The terminal program is probably located in your Applications/Utilities directory.) At the prompt type
fink index
or, if that produces errors, try
sudo fink index
Still at the terminal prompt, type
fink install gnuplot octave
If everything has been successful thus far, you will likely be told that, along with the two packages “gnuplot” and “octave”, fink needs to install 26 (or so) supporting packages. If you approve this action, fink will get to work, taking 5-8 hours even if you have a high-speed connection.
If the installations seem to have gone OK, then octave is now installed and usable. You run it from a terminal window (just like you ran fink). From a terminal, simply type
octave
Things should look and run much as they have when I've used Octave in class. To quit octave, type “quit”.

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