New Octave .deb packages for installing both 2.0.* and 2.1.*

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

I prepared the text below to announce this to the Debian dupload program,
but I think it was taken. CC'ed to the Octave list as well. Feedback by
Debian and Octave users on the new packages would be appreciated.



              Announcing Octave 2.0 and 2.1 packages for Debian

This is to announce the upload of new Octave packages for Debian, taken from
both the stable octave-2.0.* as well as the development octave-2.1.* branch,
to Debian's master archive.

Using Debian's update-alternatives mechanism, as well as minor reorganisation
of the Octave file tree which John Eaton kindly provided in the upstream
sources, permits to install *both* at the same time providing two main
binaries octave2.0 and octave2.1 as well as the alternative octave which
defaults to the stable 2.0 branch. The adjunct packages for Emacs support,
info docs, html docs and ps docs are also versioned.

With this mechanism, Debian allows for the stability of the 2.0.* release
(and thereby provides continued support for "legacy" applications in Octave
which could break by subtle, but important, changes in Octave 2.1). At same
time, it finally introduces the newer Octave 2.1.* which is the centre of
current development into Debian.  The transition might introduce a few bugs,
but the package layout and build process has undergone some testing over the
last few weeks.

As these are "new" packages as far as the Debian archive is concerned, it
might be a few days until they show up in "unstable" aka "woody", Debian's
current development distribution.



-- 
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