Re: Release goals for 3.6

[Lukas Reichlin]

On 02.08.2011, at 07:51, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:

> Somewhat related to the above, I'm a little worried with how difficult
> binary distribution seems to have been for the 3.4.x series, and I
> wish we would avoid this for 3.6. There isn't any excuse on my side
> with Debian, just haven't gotten around to making packages, which is
> embarrassing because compiling here is easier than on Macintosh
> operating systems or Windows, but we should try to at least make sure
> we can get Octave compiling on non-free OSes or try to not make it
> harder for them. Jacob's GUI has an important problem for Windows here
> because it's using ptys. Michael Goffioul (I think?) seems to be
> skeptical that cygwin is the solution here. Is there anything else we
> can do to make Windows distribution easier?

Although I am an Octave-Forge developer and not an Octave one, I'd like to 
share a few thoughts on the future development of Octave. IMHO fully functional 
and up-to-date binaries for Windows and Macintosh are of utmost importance: 

- Personally, I wouldn't have started using Octave back in 2009 if there hadn't 
been Thomas Treichl's Octave and Gnuplot binaries. At this stage it was 
difficult enough for me to find out that I need to install Aquaterm and how to 
install additional packages. Now at least I'm trying to help with MacPorts' 
octave-devel portfile.

- I believe that free software (binaries) for non-free OSes support users in 
switching to free software. At the beginning, they try out packages like 
LibreOffice, Firefox, VLC and Gimp on their Windows machine. They realize that 
they can get along with free software for most of their daily tasks and may 
decide to switch to a free OS in a subsequent step. Namely a Matlab and MS 
Office user who doesn't want to pay for pricey licences any more (or any other 
reason) is more likely to give Octave a try if he doesn't have to install a 
whole new OS with a whole new set of applications for his daily business first.

- I'm convinced that Jacob's new GUI will attract many new users, but people in 
need of a GUI are hardly those who are able to compile Octave from source with 
all its dependencies.

One may ask why it is important to attract new users: Some of them may become 
developers one day! Think of the trophic pyramid. The same is true for 
professional sports which is not possible without a broad field of amateurs 
which encourages young talent.

Best regards
Lukas