Hypergeometric function

Question

Octave doesn't seem to have a function to compute the generalized hypergeometric function _pF_q, or its simpler particular case ₂F₁:

>> help hypergeom
error: help: the 'hypergeom' function belongs to the symbolic package from Octave
Forge but has not yet been implemented.

Is there some well-known method or some function available in Matlab/Octave for computing _pF_q or ₂F₁? Ideally I would like something similar to Matlab's hypergeom, but not necessarily symbolic. It doesn't need to be particularly fast.

Applying the definition in terms of an infinite sum doesn't seem to be a good idea, because it may be numerically unstable.

Answer 1

The Octave-forge GSL package will have hyperg_2F1 in the next release. See buildgsl_sf.sh