How to get colors and syntax highlighting in Octave?

Question

I'm a newbie to Octave. When I'm working in Octave, the whole screen is a stream of white on black text, making it difficult to find my previous commands, Octave outputs and code I typed at the Octave prompt.

Is there any configuration I can perform to get some colors in the Octave prompts and messages (like in colorful bash or fish shell) and color syntax highlighting in the Octave code I type at its prompt (like in bpython)?

Answer 1

What OS are you on? Linux or Windows?

If you're going to be doing any long-term projects, then I'd suggest to edit in a different editor emacs, vi, or notepad++ (in Windows).

I don't think the Octave interpreter supports syntax highlighting, but you may be able to customize prompt colors:

https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Customizing-the-Prompt.html