Rlab Web Site

Ian Searle
Courtesy of sourcefoge.net

Last Updated: May 13, 2000

Abstract:

I am still in the process of creating/finishing this web page! If you see something missing (and I am sure there is), please bring it to my attention: Ian Searle.

Rlab is an interactive, interpreted scientific programming environment. Rlab is a very high level language intended to provide fast prototyping and program development, as well as easy data-visualization, and processing. Rlab is not a clone of languages such as those used by tools like Matlab or Matrix-X/Xmath. However, as Rlab focuses on creating a good experimental environment (or laboratory) in which to do matrix math, it can be called ``Matlab-like''; since the programming language possesses similar operators and concepts.

Rlab does not try to be a Matlab clone. Instead, it borrows what I believe are the best features of the Matlab language and provides improved language syntax and semantics. The syntax has been improved to allow users more expression and reduce ambiguities. The variable scoping rules have been improved to facilitate creation of larger programs and program libraries. A heterogeneous associative array has been added to allow users to create and operate on arbitrary data structures. The fundamental data type is a floating point matrix (either real or complex), though RLaB also includes string matrices, and sparse numerical matrices (both real and complex).

Rlab is copyrighted with the GNU General Public License, and is free (in the GNU sense) for all to use. This is the place to find out about it.

Contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• What's New
• Download
  • Source Distribution
  • Pre-Compiled Distributions
  • Related Links
• Acknowledgements
• Contributions
• Copyright Information
• Contacting the Author
• About this document ...

Introduction

Some time ago I wrote an article for the Linux Journal titled An Introduction to Rlab. This article is as good an introduction as any. Note that this article is a little bit dated. I will be updating it soon (1/9/2000)

Once upon a time, I also wrote a short article titled: Why Rlab. This article is an attempt to explain why you might choose Rlab instead of, say Matlab. If you read this, consider that it was originally written in 1992. Matlab has change significantly since then, and made several of the arguments in this article invalid.

If you want all the gory details, the RLaB Reference Manual is online in HTML form.

What's New

• 01/08/2000: I have moved the Rlab web site from eskimo.com to http://rlab.sourceforge.net. There are several reasons for the move. The most significant is that eskimo is often too slow, or sometimes inaccessible. Another reason is that I have primarily kept the eskimo account so that people could have access to Rlab. With services like SourceForge available Rlab can reside in a stable, accessible location, and I can have the freedom to switch my ISP.
• 01/08/2000: Rlab 2.1.05 builds out of the box on RedHat 6.1 (probably 6.0 as well). The reason Rlab would not build for a time was a change in the glibc interface.
• 12/1999: Rlab 2.1.+ now builds cleanly on Windows NT4 (VC++6.0).
• 05/13/2000: Some users have been having trouble building/running rlab on Debian/GNU Linux systems. I have not had the bandwidth to work through this problem yet. I hppe to soon (any day).
• 05/13/2000: I have updated the Windows pre-built distribution to fix a bug that caused rlab processes to be much larger upon startup than they should. I have also updated the Reference Manual within this release.
• 05/13/2000: I have made minor updates, mostly the removal of references to eskimo.com, to the Rlab Reference Manual.

Download

In the past, Rlab has been available from a variety of sites, in various source, and pre-compiled forms. Presently, I can not afford the time to copy Rlab distributions to other sites. If you have a special version of Rlab, either binary or source, I am happy to put a link herein if you email the necessary information, and keep the distribution up to date.

Source Distribution

The source comes in a single gzip'ed tar file. It should build fairly easily on most Unix variants. Since I develop it on Linux, I expect it will build easiest of all there.

source distribution

Pre-Compiled Distributions

I provide pre-compiled distributions for:

• Linux: version 2.1.05.
  Installation Instructions
• Solaris: Not available yet.
• Windows: version 2.1.05b
  Installation Instructions.
  Plotting support via Gnuplot v3.71w32.
  Gnuplot: ftp://ftp.gnuplot.vt.edu/pub/gnuplot

Ports for other operating systems:

• RLaB for MacOS This port is generously performed and provided by T.S. Yang.

Related/Complimentary Links:

• PGraf Plotting Package: ftp://kestrel.nmt.edu/pub/raymond/pgraf.tar.gz.

• KLaB: http://www-chaos.umd.edu/~dsweet/KDE/KLab A graphical interface for Rlab built with KDE.

Related Links

The following links are for programs that Rlab utilizes, like Boehm's garbage collector, or plotting packages.

• Boehm's Garbage Collector: http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/. This is the generational garbage collector that Rlab uses. The source for the garbage collector is packaged with Rlab, and integrated into the Makefile. Occaisionally, I get a little behind GC releases. You may find this link useful if this happens.
• Gnuplot: ftp://ftp.gnuplot.vt.edu/pub/gnuplot/. Rlab can use Gnuplot (works best on Unix) to display/visualize data. Karl Storck has done a very nice job of improving and maintaining the Rlab/Gnuplot interface. You can contact Karl via: mailto:karst@ikp.liu.se.
• Pgplot: http://astro.caltech.edu/~tjp/pgplot/. This is the plotting package I currently use. It does not do all the things the Gnuplot does, but it does most, and has a nice X-Windows driver that can repaint itself properly.
• Plplot: http://emma.la.asu.edu/plplot/. I used to use this years ago. Since then, it has not been maintained as much as I would like, and the neat Tcl/Tk driver has been outdated by the many new releases of Tcl/Tk.
• PlotMTV: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/.
• LAPACK: http://cm.bell-labs.com/netlib/index.html. This is where all of the numerical support comes from.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the following peoples contributions to RLaB. They are listed in no specific order:

• I would like to thank the sponsors of Sourceforge for providing the resources to host RLaB's web site.
• Mike Brennan has provided lots of suggestions and guidance and some excellent code from mawk.
• Many thanks to Phillip Musumeci and Brad Hards for volunteering to help with the documentation, and for many helpful suggestions and advice. Also special thanks to Phillip for providing the main archive site.
• Thanks to Matt Wette for providing an archive site in the U.S.
• Thanks to Fook Fah Yap for contributing faster matrix multiply functions, and being a very persistent tester.
• Chris Thewalt, for donating the getline interface.
• Jeff Layton, for donating rfiles, and the first solid version of a controls toolbox!
• Maurice LeBrun for doing such a nice job with PLPLOT, and for providing lots of help.
• Glen Greers for help and advice with dynamic linking.
• T. S. Yang for doing a nice job on the Macintosh port. And, for contributing lots of useful rfiles.
• John Peterson for doing the OS/2 and DOS ports, and helping me find good micro-brew in San Diego.
• Much thanks to the authors and sponsors of LAPACK, RANLIB, and FFTPACK.
• Thanks to the authors, and maintainers of GNUPLOT.
• The alpha testers have been a great help... Most notably: Phillip Musumeci, Brad Hards, Ove Ewerlid, Tarun Soni, Roumen Antonov, Charles H. Romine, Paul Cloke, Sze Tan, Jinghong Chen, Alan Magnuson, Edwin Ng, Michael C. Grant, Thomas Witelski, Timothy Kay, and Fook Fah Yap.

Contributions

Copyright Information

Contacting the Author

My email address is searleir@yahoo.com. I check my mail at yahoo at least once a week.

About this document ...

Rlab Web Site

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The translation was initiated by Ian R. Searle on 2000-05-13