Re: Octave for Windows

[Tom Weichmann]

Hello,

About three years ago, I created the first 'Octave for Windows' package, and a 
version of octave to run minimaly in a web browser as part of a research 
grant that I won from the National Science Foundation to create free 
engineering tools.  My distro was ok, but buggy on some systems.  Julian A. 
de Marchi took what I did and extended it from there.  That is what is at the 
matlinks site from the Octave FAQ page.  I stoped working on this a long time 
ago as that project introduced me to Linux and I have never looked at Windows 
again.  

When this package came out JWE seemed to have little or no interest, and 
therefore there was never any offical version of octave for windows.  Right 
from the begining both Julian A. de Marchi and myself had two sites, and two 
versions.  Now that JWE seems to be interested in this type of thing perhaps 
there needs to be an 'Offical' version of 'Octave for Windows'.  This, of 
course, does not stop anyone from releasing their own version, but it does 
make a standard, and if you choose to run the non standard version, that is 
ok, but expext to be your own support.

This highlights one of the largest problems that I see with Linux applications 
today.  There is never a void of talented people wanting to write code and 
donate their time to the cause, but they all work on their own little 
projects and do not help out with the existing one.  I mean how many e-mail 
clients (or insert your fav app here) does Linux need?  I can count about 10 
just off of the top of my head.  If these people all worked on the same 
project we would have a very strong version 1.0 instead of 10 versions 0.0.2b 
that all but one crash every 5 seconds.  

Lets get all of these people interested together and create one 'offical' 
Octave For Windows package that can be distributed from the Octave site.  We 
really do not need all of these different versions.

Just my $0.02,

Tom Weichmann

On Thursday 10 July 2003 10:01 am, Mike Miller wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Jul 2003, Steven Levine wrote:
> > >I think someone (jwe?) should at least set the minimum requirements for
> > >an Octave for Windows distro.
> >
> > No one can set any requirements.  The license precudes this.  What needs
> > to be done is what appears to be happening now.  That is, the interested
> > parties are communicating and coming to a consensus as to how the labor
> > will be divided.
>
> I'll add one suggestion.  No matter who does what with Octave code (new
> Windows versions, collections of m-files, etc.), they ought to make their
> stuff available through the contributions page on www.octave.org.  As it
> stands, it is very difficult to work with that contributions page.  There
> is a FAQ, a very long one, for Octave for Windows, and there is a link to
> this page -- http://sourceforge.net/projects/matlinks -- for a binary, but
> I can't tell if that's Andy's or John's, or someone elses.
>
> Things seem to be all over the place and it is difficult for non-experts
> on Octave to figure out where to go and what to do to get started.
>
> I don't mean to be a complainer because I am amazed at all the things you
> guys have accomplished.  I do wish there was one place I could go and
> start reading, and that one place would direct me to the other places I
> should check out.  It would be organized for someone who doesn't know
> anything except that he might want to use Octave.
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL.
>
> Octave's home on the web:  http://www.octave.org
> How to fund new projects:  http://www.octave.org/funding.html
> Subscription information:  http://www.octave.org/archive.html
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-------------------------------------------------------------
Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL.

Octave's home on the web:  http://www.octave.org
How to fund new projects:  http://www.octave.org/funding.html
Subscription information:  http://www.octave.org/archive.html
-------------------------------------------------------------