Re: why is the wiki page on building octave so lacking?

[Luke M]

> "The Octave build and install process is most mature on Unix-like
> systems, e.g. Debian, Ubuntu, etc. and is described in the sections
> below.

Nitpicking here, but "e.g." (for example) should not be used with "etc."
(and so on).  The latter is redundant in this case because by saying "for
example," you are already implying that you are not providing a complete
list.  Instead, either drop the et cetera or use "i.e." (that is).  Or,
perhaps better, simply avoid using the abbreviation.

Anyway, making the wiki more directly useful is great, but on a related
note, what is the general feeling on providing third party links from the
wiki?  I agree with Oz & RC that users tend to appreciate more personalized
instructions, especially because they often go beyond the official
documentation in terms of troubleshooting.  My sites don't see a great deal
of traffic, but I've also experienced that my blog posts on how to
build/install/configure some piece of software, and how I solved some snag I
hit in the process, have the most hits and feedback by far.

So in my opinion third party links could be valuable as long as the links
are shown under a prominent heading with the proper caveats (the official
installation instructions are recommended, these links may be out of date,
and so on), and are kept to a minimum standard.  For example any third party
links displayed without the corresponding Octave version number and
posted/updated date should be removed.  If you wanted to be fancy you could
even collapse this section by default.

Third party links aren't unprecedented, though they seem to be particularly
warranted in the cases I've seen.  For example Tatsuro Matsuoka's personal
site is linked directly in the text of the Octave for Windows page, but I
know he's done a great deal of work on getting the Windows build up and
running.  Most of the others are external references (a page on Ubuntu's
wiki or an upstream dependency site).  I do recognize the potential for
abuse, but I believe there would be a high signal-to-noise ratio.

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