Re: additional packages

[Thomas Treichl]

Ben Abbott schrieb:
> On Thursday, February 28, 2008, at 04:28PM, "Henry F. Mollet" <address@hidden> 
> wrote:
>
> > on 2/28/08 12:40 PM, Ben Abbott at address@hidden wrote:
> >
> > > On Thursday, February 28, 2008, at 03:15PM, "jennifer jentzsch"
> > > <address@hidden> wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > a few days ago i just started using octave in addition to gnuplot in
> > > > order to solve some integrals to calculate a shielding for a new
> > > > physical experiment at our chair. i am working on an ibook g4 with
> > > > Mac Os 10.4. Via fink i installed octave 2.1.71, the only available
> > > > version. after many hours of trying to adjust the errors:
> > > >
> > > > error: 'print' undefined
> > > > error: 'quadl' undefined
> > > >
> > > > i found out that these functions are not part of octave-2.1.71. Can i
> > > > install some additional packages subsequently? i know that there is
> > > > also a version 3.0.0 but this one is not available via fink and i do
> > > > not want to download the binary via sourceforge....
> > > >
> > > > i hope you can help me!
> > > > greetings
> > > > jennifer jentzsch
> > > > experimental physics 4
> > > > universtity of technology dortmund
> > > Hi Jennifer,
> > >
> > > Regarding Fink, if you add the unstable branch you'll have access to version
> > > Octave 3.0.0.
> > >
> > > If you run "fink configure" you'll be able to turn the unstable branch on (I
> > > recommend you do this since nearly everything I find useful is there, and I
> > > don't find any of it particularly "unstable").
> > >
> > > Once you've enabled the unstable branch, do a "fink selfupdate; fink index;
> > > fink scanpackages"
> > >
> > > Then you can run "fink install octave" and in an hour or so you'll have Octave
> > > 3.0.0 running.
> > >
> > > Ben
> > It might be a lot easier to install compressed disc images *.dmg for Mac.
> > Both ppc and intel versions are available
> > See
> > http://www.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/help-octave/2007-December/007251.html .
> > And then http://octave.sourceforge.net./ .
> > Henry 
>
> I agree, if Octave is all that is needed, it would be easier to use one of the 
> compressed disc images.
>
> However, if other Fink packages are also needed, then messy conflict can arise 
> :-(
>
> For that reason I use Fink (it also helps me with my local builds since it 
> handles all the dependencies).
>
> Ben

Hhmmm... Ben, what exactly do you mean by "messy conflict can arise" - this 
sounds to me like you can't use Fink packages anymore if Octave.app is installed?

Fink doesn't know anything about Octave.app even if it is installed and 
therefore Fink can't use any of Octave.app's libraries. Octave.app doesn't use 
Fink's libraries but uses it's own (Octave.app brings all the necessary 
libraries needed to run on its own and doesn't install anything anywhere else on 
a user's harddisc). Fink shouldn't modify files that hard on a harddisc either, 
isn't it?

So where do that messy conflicts arise? My knowledge is that people using 
Fink-Octave and Octave.app both on one and the same machine can use both without 
conflicting or damaging each other (maybe they can't use Octave.app and 
Octave-Fink at the same time)...

This actually is a feature of a standalone application *.app from my point of 
view that doesn't work if somebody mixes distribution installations?!

  Thomas