Dynare version 4.1 ================== For information about how to use Dynare, you should have a look at the documentation located in the 'doc' subdirectory of your Dynare installation (you should have a shortcut in your Start Menu to access it directly). Beginners should start with the Dynare user guide. There is also a complete reference manual documenting all Dynare functions (under HTML format in 'manual\index.html', under PDF format in 'manual.pdf'). You can also get more information on the web, on Dynare homepage: http://www.dynare.org Or on Dynare Wiki: http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki NOTE: Dynare comes with an automated uninstaller, which you can run from the "Add/Remove Programs" menu of the Control Panel. Using Dynare with MATLAB (R) ---------------------------- Dynare requires MATLAB (R) version 6.5 or above. With older versions of MATLAB (R), it may fail or give unexpected results. In order to have functional MEX files, users of the 64-bit version of MATLAB should install Microsoft Visual C++ runtime libraries, available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=bd2a6171-e2d6-4230-b809-9a8d7548c1b6&displaylang=en To use Dynare, you just have to add the 'matlab' subdirectory of your Dynare installation to MATLAB (R) path. You have two options for doing that: * Use the addpath command, by typing the following (assuming that you have installed Dynare at the standard location, and replacing '4.x.y' by correct version number): addpath c:\dynare\4.x.y\matlab MATLAB (R) will not remember this setting next time you run it, and you will have to do it again. * Select the "Set Path" entry in the "File" menu, then click on "Add Folder...", and select the 'matlab' subdirectory of your Dynare installation. Note that you SHOULD NOT use "Add with Subfolders...". Apply the settings by clicking on "Save". Note that MATLAB (R) will remember this setting next time you run it. You can test your installation by typing 'dynare' at the MATLAB (R) prompt. This should give you an error message complaining that you did not specify a MOD file. Using Dynare with Octave ------------------------ Dynare is now available for GNU Octave, a free clone of MATLAB (R) (see ). The recommended Octave distribution is the Octave/MinGW 3.2.3 precompiled binaries from Octave Forge, available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/octave/files/Octave_Windows%20-%20MinGW/Octave%203.2.3%20for%20Windows%20MinGW32%20Installer/Octave-3.2.3-2_i686-pc-mingw32_gcc-4.4.0_setup.exe/download Every time you run Octave, you should type the two following commands (assuming that you have installed Dynare at the standard location, and replacing '4.x.y' by correct version number): addpath c:\dynare\4.x.y\matlab NOTE: if you don't want to type this command every time you run Octave, you can put it in a file called '.octaverc' in your home directory (generally 'c:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\'). This file is run by Octave at every startup. You can test your installation by typing 'dynare' at the Octave prompt. This should give you an error message complaining that you did not specify a MOD file. For more information about Dynare for Octave, go to: http://www.dynare.org/DynareWiki/DynareOctave Dynamic Loadable Libraries -------------------------- For better performance, some parts of Dynare are written in the C++ language, which is faster than standard M-files. These parts are compiled and distributed as dynamic loadable libraries (DLL), located in the 'mex' subdirectory of your Dynare installation. If the DLL are correctly detected by MATLAB (R) or Octave, the following should be displayed when you launch Dynare: Configuring Dynare ... [mex] Generalized QZ. [mex] Sylvester equation solution. [mex] Kronecker products. [mex] Sparse kronecker products. [mex] Bytecode evaluation. [mex] k-order perturbation solver. [mex] k-order solution simulation. On the contrary, if DLL are not detected, Dynare will fallback on slower alternatives written in M-files (only for some of the DLLs), and display the following: Configuring Dynare ... [m] Generalized QZ. [m] Sylvester equation solution. [m] Kronecker products. [m] Sparse kronecker products. [no] Bytecode evaluation. [no] k-order perturbation solver. [no] k-order solution simulation. In this last case, Dynare will run correctly on the basic features, but with suboptimal speed, and some features will be missing. There could be several reasons for MATLAB (R) or Octave failing to detect the DLL: * Your path settings may be wrong. Make sure that the 'matlab' subdirectory of your Dynare installation is the only Dynare directory present in the path variable. * Your MATLAB (R) or Octave version may be incompatible with the provided binaries. * You may have a custom M-file in your search path with the same name than a DLL, therefore overriding it. Credits ------- MATLAB (R) is a registered trademark of The Mathworks, Inc.