publish your Code with GNU Octave

The publish function was added to GNU Octave 4.2.0 back in last November. This file should demonstrate some of it's functionality.

Contents

First steps - text blocks, titles, and sections

Using publish, each text block starts with two comment characters (# or %). Each directly following comment line will be part of that text block. For example

%%         %%%        ##
% this,    % this,    # and this
%          %          #

are perfect text blocks, without any difference.

Additionally, it is possible to group your published document into sections. Therefore, just add a title to your text block:

%% Section title
%

A text block without section title is a continuation of the previous section.

Code evaluation with display of output

The most powerful feature of the publish function is the automatic evaluation of all Octave code, that is not contained in a text block. Just enter the Octave code as always and the code will be presented with syntax highlighting and any output, textual or plots, will be presented below.

For example the code:

x = 0:0.2:2*pi;
y = sin (x);
plot (x, y);     # Plot some sine
[x(end), y(end)] # Display the last point

will produce the output:

x = 0:0.2:2*pi;
y = sin (x);
plot (x, y);     # Plot some sine
[x(end), y(end)] # Display the last point

ans =
   6.200000  -0.083089
script2-1.png

Text block formatting

The rest of this document is devoted to the formatting features of the publish function.

Bold, italic, and monospaced text

Type *BOLD TEXT* for BOLD TEXT.

Type _ITALIC TEXT_ for ITALIC TEXT.

Type |MONOSPACED TEXT| for MONOSPACED TEXT.

Hyperlinks

There are three types of hyperlinks.

1. A hyperlink https://www.gnu.org/software/octave where label and URL are identical. Created by:

<https://www.gnu.org/software/octave>

2. A hyperlink GNU Octave where label and URL are different. Created by:

<https://www.gnu.org/software/octave GNU Octave>

3. Referring to a specific Octave function by an hyperlink to the online manual. For Octave's plot function just type:

<octave:plot Octave's plot function>

Trademark symbols

Type (TM) to get ™ and type (R) to get ®.

Bulleted lists

The input, sourrounded by empty text block lines

* ITEM 1
* ITEM 2
* ITEM 3
* ITEM 4

will produce a bulleteded list:

Numbered lists

The input, sourrounded by empty text block lines

# ITEM 1
# ITEM 2
# ITEM 3
# ITEM 4

will produce a bulleteded list:

  1. ITEM 1
  2. ITEM 2
  3. ITEM 3
  4. ITEM 4

Preformatted text

A text block line starting with two spaces and an empty preceding text block line will be seen as preformatted text and printed verbatim as is:

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?  To die: to sleep;"
--"Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare

Octave Code

A text block line starting with three spaces and an empty preceding text block line will be seen as Octave code and printed verbatim as is with syntax highlighting:

for i = 1:10
  disp (x)
endfor

Include Octave code files

To display the verbatim and syntax highlighted content of an Octave code file, no matter if function, class, or script, one can use the include tag. For example to include the content of a file named script.m, just type:

<include>script.m</include>

to see it's content:

## My script
#
# *Row* vector creation.
##

a = 1:5

%%
% Using the .
%

x = 0:.2:2*pi;
y = sin (x);
plot (x,y)

Include graphics

To include a graphic, say img.png, just type:

<<img.png>>

and make sure, that output document can find this graphic.

LaTeX formulae

To display LaTeX set formulae, just sourround the formular by a single dollar sign $ for an inline equation, for example $e^{x} = \sum_{k = 0}^{\infty} \frac{x^{k}}{k!}$ or by two dollar signs $$ for block display:

$$e^{x} = \sum_{k = 0}^{\infty} \frac{x^{k}}{k!}$$.

For HTML documents, the formulae are rendered by MathJax.

HTML Markup

If the output is an HTML document, the content enclosed by the <html> tag is printed as is. This is useful, if it is desired to tweek the output with native HTML markup. For other output formats, this markup is ignored.

In an HTML document, this markup

<html>
<table><tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid black;">one</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid black;">two</td>
</tr></table>
</html>

will create a nice looking table:

one two

LaTeX Markup

If the output is a PDF or LaTeX document, the content enclosed by the <latex> tag is printed as is. This is useful, if it is desired to tweek the output with native LaTeX markup. For other output formats, this markup is ignored.

In an LaTeX document, this markup

<latex>
\begin{equation}
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4
\end{pmatrix}
\end{equation}
</latex>

will print a nice matrix: