Octave:
Let us begin / Getting started:

As we work in Octave, we issue commands that create variables and call functions. For example, create a variable named axialForce by typing this statement at the command line:

MATLAB adds variable a to the workspace and displays the result in the Command Window.

Create a few more variables.

When you do not specify an output variable, MATLAB uses the variable ans, short for answer, to store the results of your calculation.

If you end a statement with a semicolon, MATLAB performs the computation, but suppresses the display of output in the Command Window.

You can recall previous commands by pressing the up- and down-arrow keys, ↑ and ↓. Press the arrow keys either at an empty command line or after you type the first few characters of a command. For example, to recall the command reposeAngle = 30; type r, and then press the ↑ key.

Matrices and Arrays

MATLAB is designed to operate primarily on whole matrices and arrays, while other programming languages mostly work with numbers one at a time.

All MATLAB variables are multidimensional arrays, no matter what type of data. A matrix is a two-dimensional array often used for linear algebra.

Array Creation

To create an array with four elements in a single row, separate the elements with either a comma (,) or a space.

Another way to create a matrix is to use a function, such as ones, zeros, or rand. For example, create a 5-by-1 column vector of zeros.