Re: [OctDev] RE: GUI for Octave programs.

[Matthew W. R. <ma...@ne...>]

> Wow!  You exist!  Working on Octave I know can be very
> disheartening.  Few people join in and collaborate on anything.
> Oh, well.

Well, it's not so much that I'm disheartened.  My Committee chair is
retiring in December and I'm trying to get my Dissertation cranked
out by then.

I've been forced to use Matlab, unfortunately, in my research
because of some of Octave's limitations with structures (can't save
them, can't have arrays of structures).  I was considering trying to
finish up `in absentia', but then I found out how much it would cost
to get a licensed version of Matlab.  Eeek!  Since then I've been
racking my brain trying to figure out a way to start a company based
on Octave.  From what I've seen with Eazel, Corel Linux, Stormix, et
al, I'm not sure an open source company can survive.

Thanks for your comments.  Some specific replies:

> 2) ...   Support for independent packaging is not appropriate at
> the moment since the toolboxes are mostly tiny (except signal and
> image) and enthusiasm is low.

I agree.  However, we should still set up the directory structure
with packaging in mind.

> How about we put a hard limit of 5 Mb total main tree size before
> we worry about separate packaging?

Sounds good to me.

> 6) Functions should not require patched versions of Octave or
> gnuplot to run.

Definitely agree.

I like your directory structure.  The main tree is for additions to
the standard octave distribution, right?

--
Matthew W. Roberts
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Structural Engineering  *  Texas A&M University  *  ma...@ta...