Re: additional packages

[Ben Abbott]

On Friday, February 29, 2008, at 12:19PM, "Thomas Treichl" <address@hidden> 
wrote:
>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
>

I'll qualify my prior comment with "I haven't actually tried installing Octave 
via Fink and via a standalone version at the same time".

Based upon what I've read from others, my understanding is that conflicts can 
arise if different versions of octave, different version of gnuplot, and/or 
different versions of aquaterm are installed at the same time.

The different versions of octave shouldn't be a problem unless ~/.octaverc 
includes path information.

Do my concerns have merit, or am have I misunderstood something?

Ben