Re: The future of Octave

[Trond Eivind GlomsrØd]

João Cardoso <address@hidden> writes:

> Trond Eivind GlomsrØd wrote:
> 
> > >    Tcl is too slow, especially since everyone is obviously concerned about
> > >    execution time.  I say we should use C++m which Octave can already
> > >    dynamicly load.
> > >
> > > Tcl would be indeed too slow if one wanted to use it for
> > > computation---but I don't think this is being contemplated. I think a
> > > better idea is to wrap up Tk widgets into octave wrappers; so instead
> > > of Tcl loop running Tk widgets you'd run Octave loop.
> > 
> > Argh. TclTk can best be decribed as "evil" and "obsolete", and I think
> > the company who did this (Scriptics, which changed the name and was
> > bought) has dropped it.
> > 
> > If a GUI is to be made, I think using gtk+ would be better - it's the
> > foundation of GNOME, GNU's desktop. If taking the next step and using
> > gnome, visualization could be done through bonobo.
> 
> This problem has been raised several times in the mailing lists.
> Yes, tcl is ugly, but using Tk as a GUI is fast enought (look at
> http://merlin.inescn.pt/Šþqual/tk_octave)
> 
> Yes, gtk is nicer; no, xxx is slow, ah, but yyy is promising, no ZZZ is
> "first principles" based!
> 
> This is not the correct way. Define a generic interface and let each one
> use what he likes!

Sure, I'm quite happy with the text interface myself.

> Don't bind Octave to anything more than is just needed: using GNOME
>or XXX or YYY would limit users to linux (and unix is more than just
>linux!

Gtk+/GNOME is not in anyway Linux-specific, and is even backed by Sun,
HP, IBM etc. There is a Gtk+ port for Windows, while I don't think
there is one for Mac.

> and the dos/windows/mac guys?). This is also true for ploting; as is
>now, Octave can be used with gnuplot, even on mac, ms-windows, or
>amiga, or atari (!?).

Yes, but gnuplot is Octave's weakest point - it doesn't hold a candle
to Matlab, which was my favorite visualization tool.

In order to not write code specific to Octave, the best way is to use
software components - and that means doing platform specific things
(bonobo (a CORBA layer) on UNIX, OLE on Windows, <foo> on Mac)

> PS- John Eaton, thanks a lot for Octave and personal support in the last
> half decade! 

Certainly - it's a very nice piece of software.

-- 
Trond Eivind Glomsrød
Red Hat, Inc.



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