Installing octave for ipython

In late 2014, to install Octave and Oct2py for use in IPython on a Mac, take the following steps.

1. Download the Octave binary package from Octave Forge and install
   
   
2. Then install oct2py, by opening a terminal window and entering
   $ pip install oct2py
   as per this page.
   
   
3. Python and oct2py are still not aware of Octave's location. To make them aware, edit your bash profile. As per this page, open a terminal window and enter
   $ touch ~/.bash_profile; open ~/.bash_profile
   This will open your bash profile in TextEdit.
   
   
4. To the bash profile use the method from this page; add the following line of text
   export PATH=/usr/local/octave/3.8.0/bin:$PATH
   You may need to adjust this text as per the version of Octave you are using.
   
   
5. Now as per this page you should be ready to either call Octave as a library of IPython, e.g.
   >>> from oct2py import octave as oc
   >>> x = oc.zeros(3,3)
   >>> print x, x.dtype
   [[ 0.  0.  0.]
    [ 0.  0.  0.]
   [ 0.  0.  0.]] float64
   
   
6. Or you can use oct2py in IPython magic mode like
   In [1]: %load_ext oct2py.ipython
   In [2]: x = %octave [1 2; 3 4];
   x
   Out[2]: array([[ 1.,  2.],
          [ 3.,  4.]])
   as per this page.

Yes this would have been better as a Notebook ;)