Re: Which version of Octave?

[Joe Koski]

on 3/24/04 12:47 AM, Christoph Dalitz at address@hidden
wrote:

> On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 14:41:17 -0800
> "Henry F. Mollet" <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 
>> Should Mac not mean easy installation of Octave? Something corresponding to a
>> binary .exe as is available for Windows? Why do we need Fink or DarwinPorts
>> to
>> be able to install Octave?
>> 
> Now that I have a Panther system at hand, I am pondering the creation of an
> OSX
> package (*.pkg) via epm (http://www.easysw.com/epm/). As a side effect, this
> would
> also allow the creation of RPM, DEB etc packages without any extra effort.
> 
> I wonder however, whether a native OSX package would not do any harm.
> AFAIK Apple does not provide an uninstall option in its package
> manager/installer.
> Or has this changed with Panther? Or are there any third party tools that
> allow
> the uninstallation of OSX packages?
> 
Since octave and octave-forge are moving targets, keeping a Mac installer
current would be a continuing problem. I've been using Octave less than a
year, and have used versions numbered all the way from 2.1.36 to 2.1.50, and
am currently looking into 2.1.57. Even Fink has trouble staying current.

The gnuplot and aquaterm dependencies, also moving targets, would also make
a unified installer difficult. For example, the HPC web site that has the
almost-current octave and octave-forge binaries, points us to versions of
gnuplot and aquaterm that are a year or two old.

My suggestion would be to post an easily updated "cookbook" that instructs a
person how to install octave on a Mac. For example: start with the HPC
binaries, download gnuplot and aquaterm from another site, and then follow
some instructions to install the components. This should be a page or two
long, and would allow for easy updates as Octave changes.

A while back I needed an OSF code called Geomview. A Google search took me
to a web site where a person in Holland listed all the Mac make and file
changes changes and downloads I needed, for example LessTif, to get a
working program. It took me an evening, starting from scratch, to get a
working version of Geomview. Octave should be amenable to the same approach.

Those are my two bits worth of input anyway. I would be willing to do a
draft of this approach for everyone's review, but I would need some inputs
on the latest graphics options. Removal of the applications is another
issue. Maybe another post would be the steps to remove Octave via "sudo rm
-r." That could be a potential liability to persons prone to shoot
themselves in the foot, UNIX-ly speaking.

Joe Koski



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