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Re: Catching up to Matlab


From: Francesco Potortì
Subject: Re: Catching up to Matlab
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2010 10:04:45 +0100

John Eaton:
>> Definitely disagree.  Octave should have its own documentation that
>> completely describes it.

>There is a very good Ukrainian saying: Нехай гірше, аби іншеє
>
>Which means: Let it be worse, but different.

I find it quite obvious that any program should come with its own
documentation, adn strive to make it as complete and autocontained as
possible.

This is also true of Octave, which implements the same features as
Matlab does, because Octave is not intended to be a scaled-down,
half-baked clone of Matlab, but a complete program on its own.

Referencing another program's documentation means endorsing that
program, which is definitely not the intention of the Octave developers.
It could in principle have even unwanted legal consequences.

Even if I understand your concerns (but dislike your tone), I think that
they are amply overridden by the above issues.  If you want to write an
alternative help function, I suggest you write it as a wrapper to the
official Octave help, and publish it somewhere, so that people can use
it and possibly appreciate it.

-- 
Francesco Potortì (ricercatore)        Voice: +39 050 315 3058 (op.2111)
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