[OctDev] Re: octave-forge account for cosmo/

[<pki...@us...>]

Context:  I've had several requests to include specialized
projects into octave forge, including one from Boud (see
below).  So far most of octave forge is general, with the 
exception of a couple of bits of code (protein database, 
civil engineering, finance).  

I'm biased toward keeping it that way since I have neither 
the time nor the skills to keep such code running when the 
author disappears.

I would prefer to have a packaging system which makes 
things easy to build and install, a public archive to store 
them and several tinderbox machines to build and test the 
code on different architectures. The packaging system
should include author email addresses to report bugs and
an easy way for users to post and apply patches when
the author is too busy to respond.  The distribution system
must support dependencies.  Ideally this system could
handle octave and/or matlab packages to increase the size
of the contributing community.

However, I don't have time to create such a system, and I
have yet to inspire someone else to do so.  So in the mean
time, what should we do?  Put specialized packages in
extra with a NOINSTALL file?  I suppose that's better than
letting it die on the net, so unless anyone else has a better
suggestion, that is what I will recommend.

Paul Kienzle
pki...@us...

On 19 Nov 2003 at 15:36, Boud Roukema wrote:

> Hi Paul,
> 
> On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 pki...@us... wrote:
> 
> > Hi.
> >
> > I consider octave-forge to be a community project,
> > so anyone can become a developer just by asking.
> 
> :)
> 
> > My concern is that what you are doing sounds very
> > specific, and I don't want every octave-forge use to
> > have to build and install it by default.  On the other
> > hand, I don't want your users to have to work too
> > hard to get it.
> 
> It's specific in the sense that many ordinary readers of popular
> science magazines/books normally don't realise that they can make
> simple "random checks" on the science they read about, and they have
> to make judgments more by the "argument of authority" (such and such a
> magazine is "serious and trustworthy", a study done at an Ivy League
> university or "by NASA" is more credible than any other, ...) rather
> than by checking themselves.
> 
> My hope is to completely change this culture. Empirical science is for
> everybody, especially since in the internet era, empirical data can be
> easily shared so that people who cannot buy/build/run a 4m telescope
> or a synchroton or whatever can still do their own analyses of the
> data. Most astronomy data and the arxiv.org publications database are
> freely available on the internet (in contrast to social sciences which
> AFAIK mostly seem to be closed), so it's possible for ordinary people
> to participate *a lot*.
> 
> However, i agree that we should not "force" users who do not share
> this vision to have to install scientific packages.
> 
> So if there is some solution where "my users" (or maybe eventually,
> general users curious about empirical science) can install it without
> "having to work too hard", of course that makes sense.
> 
> 
> For the moment, i was only thinking of contributing functions
> to calculate distance as a function of redshift and vice-versa,
> though it's true that in the long term i'm interested in making
> more general scientific packages available, even though i'm not
> sure how useful an octave "front-end" would be.
> 
> Would simply putting in a file "NOINSTALL" as suggested here:
> http://octave.sourceforge.net/new_developer.html
> be enough?
> 
> 
> > The best thing would be a package archive system
> > for Octave much like CRAN or CPAN.  Then just
> > the users who want the specialized packages
> > need to download and install them.
> 
> i hadnt' heard of CRAN before (though i vaguely knew about CPAN) - it
> looks good.
> 
> 
> > Are you interested in working on a packaging
> > system?
> 
> Ummm....  You mean for me to start a web of ftp and web sites around
> the world for this project?
> 
> If this could be open-ended in the sense that it could involve general
> packaging of cosmology packages, both with octave front-ends and
> independently, and if some people (like you) could help me, then yes,
> i would be interested.
> 
> As a member of the cosmology community, i think that other cosmo institutes
> would be likely to join in in making a network of mirrors etc, but *only*
> once one site is clearly functioning and i publish a few papers using
> the packages.
> 
> BTW, can we shift this thread onto a public list, e.g. octave-dev?
> Apart from stuff which is security related, i generally prefer
> discussion to be public. The more people can double check a
> conversation, the more chance there is that software will evolve in a
> way useful to users.
> 
> Or else i could make a new mailman list:
> http://adjani.astro.uni.torun.pl/mailman/listinfo
> 
> boud
> 
> > - Paul
> >
> >
> > On 14 Nov 2003 at 16:51, Boud Roukema wrote:
> >
> > > hi paul,
> > >   On the page
> > >
> > > http://octave.sourceforge.net/new_developer.html
> > >
> > > you are listed as an admin of the source-forge project.
> > >
> > > i'd like to submit some scientific functions with the hope
> > > of having them eventually accepted in the main distribution so that
> > > students and other people around the world can easily make simple
> > > cosmology calculations with octave.
> > >
> > > They're in fortran but i've got a C++ wrapper which seems to work OK,
> > > at least for getting the functions to work on scalars. i'd probably
> > > need help for making the functions work on vectors or matrices in the
> > > transparent way of ordinary functions like sin, log etc.
> > >
> > > i've got an account on sourceforge as
> > >
> > > boud1
> > >
> > > Could i become an octave-force developer please?
> > >
> > > thanks
> > > boud
> >
> >