Re: Implementation of importdata belonging to Octave Core or Octave-Forge?

[Juan Pablo Carbajal]

On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 11:03 PM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Oct 20, 2012, at 4:01 PM, Juan Pablo Carbajal wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 9:51 PM, Philip Nienhuis <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>>> But (given the average number of active maintainers over a longer period)
>>> there's also something to say for keeping core Octave compact and
>>> well-maintained, and leaving specialized functions in OF.
>>
>> Well, if you try to draw a line between "general enough" and
>> specialized you will see how fuzzy the boundary is.
>> I think is good to have OF with field specific routines, definitely.
>> But there is some fuctionality there (like inputParser, yeah I know we
>> wait for classdef) that could eventually be moved into core.
>>
>> Anyway, Lets see what Jordi says to your questions since he is the one
>> who added importdata to core.
>
> I think a good start would be to define (redefine?) the purpose of the core, 
> Octave Forge, and Agora.  This has come up before.  Perhaps this should be 
> formalized to avoid repeats in the future?
>
> In any event, my impression may be wrong, but I had thought Octave's core 
> would include functions in Matlab's core and others.  Octave Forge would 
> include the package equivalents to Matlab's Toolboxes (other packages as 
> well).  Agora would be equivalent to Matlab's File Exchange (no formal rules 
> ?).
>
> Personally, I'd like to see the package equivalents to Matlab's Toolboxes 
> meet the same compatibility requirements as Octave's core.   Other than that, 
> I'm pleased with the current arrangement (as I understand it).
>
> Ben
>
> p.s. I've cc'd Jordi
>

After Octconf12, I got the idea Octave Forge will disappear as such
and become simply Octave's Agora. So the kind of good quality bundle
(i.e. passing the core standards of the OF standards) will be added to
the Forge and become a toolbox or whatever name we use (modules, I
think it will be).
But there are many functions that Octave says "is not yet implemented"
but they are indeed implemented in some Forge package, so I think we
have to seriously considering moving things into core.

Anyway, lets not drift from the original message: importdata
introduces a "fake error", maybe is just a matter of changing the
message and point the user to the right package. Lets say what Jordi
says.

Cheers