help-octave
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Octave popularity


From: Jim Van Zandt
Subject: Re: Octave popularity
Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 08:56:05 -0400

Rick Niles writes:

>...Therefore, I propose two things: (1) a new official
>version is released soon (it has so many nice features now and it's
>been so long!)

Yes!  Please!

It's natural to delay a new release in an attempt to "get it right".
However, (1) in the mean time a lot of folks have to contend with
problems in the official release that have already been fixed, or (2)
they give up and switch to something else, (3) the machinery for
handling releases get rusty, and (4) an official release will be
installed by more people, and any problems will therefore be
discovered, and probably fixed, sooner.

I know beta releases are available for the asking.  I've had to step
down from beta testing myself for quite a while, for lack of gcc
2.7.2.  You still can't compile Octave with the latest Slackware
distribution of Linux, as far as I know.  This suggest another
argument (4a) there's a better chance that people will go to the
trouble of preparing binary distributions that can be installed by
those without the facilities, notably compiler and *lots* of disk
space, for compiling it themselves.

I heard Linus Torvalds talk a while back.  Of course, he has very
frequent beta releases of the Linux kernel.  He says that helps with
debugging.  There are relatively few changes from one version to the
next, making it easier to figure out which change broke some feature.
(He has the benefit of "ten thousand beta testers", which also helps.)

By now, I think the beta version of Octave is enough better than 1.1.1
that most users would willingly spend the administrative effort to
install a new version.  That alone should justify releasing it.

Besides, for how many bug reports has jwe replied "It's fixed in my
current sources"?  A new release would have eliminated not only those
bug reports, but also the effort to reply to them.

I think the time is long past for a new release.

                           - Jim Van Zandt


reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]