GNU Octave - MATLAB Compatibility

MATLAB Compatibility

Octave has been built with MATLAB compatibility in mind, and shares many features with MATLAB:

1. Matrices as fundamental data type.
2. Built-in support for complex numbers.
3. Powerful built-in math functions and extensive function libraries.
4. Extensibility in the form of user-defined functions.

There are a few purposeful, albeit minor, differences:

1. Comment lines can be prefixed with the # character as well as the % character
2. Various C-based operators ++, --, +=, *=, /= are supported
3. Elements can be referenced without creating a new variable, e.g. (3)
4. Strings can be defined with the " character as well as the ' character
5. When the type of the variable is single Octave calculates "mean" in the single-domain (Matlab in double-domain) which is faster but gives less accurate results.