dynare/windows

Dynare version 4

================



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 in 'manual\index.html' (however

note that it is a bit outdated).



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.



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

<http://www.octave.org>).



The recommended Octave distribution is the Octave/Windows VC++ 3.0.3

precompiled binaries from Octave Forge, available at:



 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2888&package_id=40078&release_id=642199



During installation, you will be asked which graphical backend to use. Neither

of them works perfectly with Dynare at this time:



 * GNUplot gives better-looking results when several graphics are plotted in the

   same window, but window titles will not show up

 * JHandles properly displays windows titles, but gives ugly results when several

   plots are displayed in the same window 



WARNING: the Octave binary distribution has a bug which makes Octave crash

everytime one types 'clear all' (and therefore everytime one runs Dynare!). A

simple workaround is to type the following command the first time you run

Octave:



  pkg rebuild -noauto ftp ann database



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

  mark_as_command dynare



NOTE: if you don't want to type these two commands every time you run Octave,

you can put them 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.



On the contrary, if DLL are not detected, Dynare will fallback on slower

alternatives written in M-files, and display the following:



  Configuring Dynare ...

  [m] Generalized QZ.

  [m] Sylvester equation solution.

  [m] Kronecker products.

  [m] Sparse kronecker products.



In this last case, Dynare will run correctly, but with suboptimal speed. 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.





Copyright notice for software

-----------------------------



Most Dynare source files are Copyright (C) 1996-2008 Dynare Team. There are

some exceptions to this, which are described in source file headers when

relevant.



Dynare is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the

terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software

Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later

version.



This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY

WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A

PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.



You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with

this program (see 'gpl.txt'). If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.





Copyright notice for documentation

----------------------------------



Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify Dynare documentation

files under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any

later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant

Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.



A copy of the license can be found in the 'fdl.txt' file.





Credits

-------



Matlab (R) is a registered trademark of The Mathworks, Inc.