Converting MATLAB files to Octave - matlab

Question

I have a series of experiments that were written for MATLAB, but recently we are trying to run them through Octave instead. I realize they are mostly compatible, but I have been running into a few problems, and none of the online FAQs or directions I have found have addressed these at all. It's complicated a bit because there are multiple .m files that interact; however, for now I am going to focus on the main program. Anyway, so when I try to run the file (MLP.m) through octave, I get the following errors in the Terminal window:
error: dir: expecting directory or filename to be a char array
error: called from:
error: /Applications/Octave.app/Contents/Resources/share/octave/3.2.3/m/miscellaneous/dir.m at line 128, column 5
error: /Applications/MATLAB_R2008a/toolbox/psychoacoustics/MLParameters.m at line 86, column 7
error: /Applications/MATLAB_R2008a/toolbox/psychoacoustics/MLP.m at line 9, column 3
The lines it is referencing are as follows:
1)
d = dir([cd myslash 'Experiments_MLP' myslash '*.m']);
2)
s = MLParameters;
What about these lines is incompatible with Octave? I can't find anything online that indicates that these won't work.
After that, the Terminal window gives me this batch of nonsense:
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/X11R6/lib/libfontconfig.1.dylib
Reason: Incompatible library version: libfontconfig.1.dylib requires version 13.0.0 or later, but libfreetype.6.dylib provides version 10.0.0
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/X11R6/lib/libfontconfig.1.dylib
Reason: Incompatible library version: libfontconfig.1.dylib requires version 13.0.0 or later, but libfreetype.6.dylib provides version 10.0.0
/Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gnuplot: line 71: 1077 Trace/BPT trap GNUTERM="${GNUTERM}" GNUPLOT_HOME="${GNUPLOT_HOME}" PATH="${PATH}" DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}" HOME="${HOME}" GNUHELP="${GNUHELP}" DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH="${DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH}" GNUPLOT_PS_DIR="${GNUPLOT_PS_DIR}" DISPLAY="${DISPLAY}" GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR="${GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR}" "${ROOT}/bin/gnuplot-4.2.6" "$#"
/Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gnuplot: line 71: 1083 Trace/BPT trap GNUTERM="${GNUTERM}" GNUPLOT_HOME="${GNUPLOT_HOME}" PATH="${PATH}" DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}" HOME="${HOME}" GNUHELP="${GNUHELP}" DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH="${DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH}" GNUPLOT_PS_DIR="${GNUPLOT_PS_DIR}" DISPLAY="${DISPLAY}" GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR="${GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR}" "${ROOT}/bin/gnuplot-4.2.6" "$#"
error: you must have gnuplot installed to display graphics; if you have gnuplot installed in a non-standard location, see the 'gnuplot_binary' function
I have GNUPlot installed, and I checked the gnuplot_binary function, which didn't give me any answers. GNUPlot is installed in my /Applications directory, along with Octave itself. Why shouldn't this work? The README file that came with GNUPlot didn't indicate a special directory for it to be installed in. What about the the dyld library not loaded errors? Is that related to the GNUPlot problem, or is it something else?
Anyway, thanks for your help

Answer 1

I know you already solved your problem, but if you have problems again here are some links with basic information about the differences between Matlab and Octave:
Porting programs from Matlab to Octave
Differences between Octave and MATLAB

Answer 2

Addressing your first error, it's easier to explain with an example:
dirName = '/some/path'; %# base directory
filesPath = fullfile(dirName, 'MLP', '*.m'); %# full path string
d = dir(filesPath); %# expand/enumerate files
for i=1:numel(d)
disp( d(i).name )
end
You also could have built the path using string concatenation yourself:
%# '/some/path/MLP/*.m'
filesPath = [dirName filesep 'MLP' filesep '*.m'];
The above should work for both MATLAB and Octave