install octave on a Mountain Lion laptop,

Try to install octave for "Byte" with os 10.9.2.

$ sudo port install octave @3.6.4_12

... ... ... 

--->  Building clang-3.3

Error: org.macports.build for port clang-3.3 returned: command execution failed

Error: Failed to install clang-3.3

Please see the log file for port clang-3.3 for details:

    /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_lang_llvm-3.3/clang-3.3/main.log

Error: The following dependencies were not installed: atlas clang-3.3 epstool fftw-3-single gawk glpk gnuplot aquaterm wxWidgets-3.0 wxWidgets_select gperf grep pcre gsed hdf5-18 less pstoedit ImageMagick djvulibre urw-fonts plotutils qhull qrupdate transfig netpbm

To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:

    http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets

Error: Processing of port octave failed


Then try install binary "GNU_Octave_3.8.0-6.dmg" from sourceforge. This worked.