Re: The future of Octave

[Rafael Laboissiere]

John and the others,

First of all, let me add my congratulations to John, as well as a big Thank
You for this wonderful achievement called Octave.

I would like to just ask a question to John (my point here is similar to Des
Aubery's, somewhere in this thread):

What is your precise reason for abandoning Octave development?  Is it
because Octave is limited by its basic design, which will constrain whatever
you envisage as the "new generation" numerical software, or is it because
users keep bugging you to have 100% Matlab compatibility?

I find hard to believe that your move was motivated by the second reason, as
Octave and Matlab have already diverged a lot since version 4.2 of Matlab
and there is no hope in achieving total compatibility (and I see no interest
on that, neither).

If it is the first reason, could you please explain why the present design
could not serve as a basis for that new numerical software?

In summary, what I am trying to say is this: continue development of Octave
as it is now by introducing new ideas for making it a leading software in
the field.  Also, let us perhaps establish a more bazaar-like/
benevolent-dictator mode of development (a la Linux kernel). Finally, if
others wish to, let them fork the project to achieve that 100% compatibility
goal.

Regards,

-- 
Rafael Laboissiere
Institut de la Communication Parlee | Email: address@hidden
UMR CNRS 5009 / INPG                | Voice: +33 4.76.57.48.49
46, av. Felix Viallet               |   Fax: +33 4.76.57.47.10
F-38031 Grenoble CEDEX 1 France     |   URL: http://www.icp.inpg.fr/Šþrafael




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