distribution status of octave

[Randy Yates]

I'm apalled at the current state of octave's distribution mechanism.
It appears there hasn't been an RPM package generated since 2.9.9,
and we're on recommended 2.9.12, with development at 2.9.72.

OK, so I say to myself I'll install it by hand. What a freaking
nightmare! The BLAS/sparse matrix dependencies are sphagetti.

Then I try to download octave-forge (since its package is neither
updated into an RPM since 2.9.9). I get a crapload of gz files.
What is this? Are you supposed to hand unzip and untar each and
every subpackage?

I know this is open-source and community-supported and all, but
this just seems to be unacceptable.

[David Lee]

Randy Yates wrote...

Post by Randy Yates
I'm apalled at the current state of octave's distribution mechanism.
It appears there hasn't been an RPM package generated since 2.9.9,
and we're on recommended 2.9.12, with development at 2.9.72.
OK, so I say to myself I'll install it by hand. What a freaking
nightmare! The BLAS/sparse matrix dependencies are sphagetti.
Then I try to download octave-forge (since its package is neither
updated into an RPM since 2.9.9). I get a crapload of gz files.
What is this? Are you supposed to hand unzip and untar each and
every subpackage?
I know this is open-source and community-supported and all, but
this just seems to be unacceptable.

...

For those of us Windows users without a clue about how to build it ourselves the situation is much
worse still. The latest Octave Forge Windows version is only 2.1.73 - dated March 2006.

David

[David Bateman]

Post by David Lee
Randy Yates wrote...

Post by Randy Yates
I'm apalled at the current state of octave's distribution mechanism.
It appears there hasn't been an RPM package generated since 2.9.9,
and we're on recommended 2.9.12, with development at 2.9.72.
OK, so I say to myself I'll install it by hand. What a freaking
nightmare! The BLAS/sparse matrix dependencies are sphagetti.
Then I try to download octave-forge (since its package is neither
updated into an RPM since 2.9.9). I get a crapload of gz files.
What is this? Are you supposed to hand unzip and untar each and
every subpackage?
I know this is open-source and community-supported and all, but
this just seems to be unacceptable.

For those of us Windows users without a clue about how to build it
ourselves the situation is much worse still. The latest Octave Forge
Windows version is only 2.1.73 - dated March 2006.
David

...

This is being addressed, expect it to change very soon. See the thread

http://www.nabble.com/Octave-Win32-new-binary-package-%282.9.12%29-tf3830518.html

D.

[David Bateman]

Post by Randy Yates
I'm apalled at the current state of octave's distribution mechanism.
It appears there hasn't been an RPM package generated since 2.9.9,
and we're on recommended 2.9.12, with development at 2.9.72.

The problem is the transition to a package manager for octave. See the
"pkg" command in 2.9.12. So look at the web page

http://octave.sourceforge.net/doc/f/pkg.html

Post by Randy Yates
OK, so I say to myself I'll install it by hand. What a freaking
nightmare! The BLAS/sparse matrix dependencies are sphagetti.

Want do you want? No features and no external dependencies? Or full
features and external dependencies. The SuiteSparse code does use
autoconf, so yes it is hard to install. It is in an RPM if you look for
UFSparse on http://www.pbone.net..

Post by Randy Yates
Then I try to download octave-forge (since its package is neither
updated into an RPM since 2.9.9). I get a crapload of gz files.
What is this? Are you supposed to hand unzip and untar each and
every subpackage?

This is the crux of the problem. The package manager is evolving. Try

pkg install image-1.0.1,tar.gz

under Octave 2.9.10 or later and see what you get. If you want RPM's
there is a "make srpms" target in the octave-forge source tree that I've
worked hard to get to a reasonable state and that I expect to simplify
in the future, I'm waiting for a packager to take up these SRPMs and use
them.

Post by Randy Yates
I know this is open-source and community-supported and all, but
this just seems to be unacceptable.

Then change it. You too are part of the community. If you haven't
noticed the only person who replies on this list who actually knows
anything about the real situation is me, as all the others are on the
mailing lists (***@octave.org, ***@octave.org and
***@octave.org, go to http://www,octave.org/archive.html to
subscribe).

D.