Re: GSoC project about binary packaging

[Ben Abbott]

On Jun 22, 2013, at 3:52 AM, Lukas Reichlin wrote:

> On 21.06.2013, at 20:44, Michael Goffioul <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I've a student who's supposed to work on improving/completing binary 
>> packaging of octave on Windows and OS X during the next 2 months. However, I 
>> can see that there are already 3 to 4 people actively working on MXE. 
>> MXE/octave seems to already work for MinGW cross and native, as well as 
>> native Linux. So I'm a bit concerned that there won't be much left to do for 
>> the student.
>> 
>> So I'd like you to help define clear goals for this project in order to 
>> avoid stepping on each other's toes. For instance, I had listed adding 
>> support for OpenBLAS as a possible goal for him, but I saw today it had been 
>> added to MXE yesterday.
>> 
>> Basically, what's left at the moment?
>> - writing a NSI installer that's a bit smarter than "dump everything"; it 
>> should also support smart reinstallation and package addition (as in: re-run 
>> the installer to install additional components, which were not selected 
>> previously)
>> - missing octave-forge packages + dependencies
>> - OS X
>> (feel free the extend the list)
>> 
>> For OS X, I'd like some input from OS X users to assess what's doable. For 
>> instance, is it possible to integrate installer building inside MXE (for 
>> instance using some native OS X compilation)? I also remember a recent mail 
>> from Ben mentioning some new efforts in MacPorts to get octave compiled on 
>> OS X.
>> 
>> At the end of the day, I hope there will be enough work to be done to make a 
>> GSoC project.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Michael.
>> 
> 
> Hi Michael,
> 
> A new version of a real app bundle [1] for OS X would be nice. App bundles 
> can be installed by drag-and-drop without an installer. This could be done 
> using Thomas Treichl's work [1] for Octave 3.2 or possibly the new MXE thing. 
> I don't see how this could work with macports.
> 
> Regards,
> Lukas

Regarding MacOS X, I'd also assumed we'd want to produce an app bundled.  If 
all dependencies are available (via Macports, MXE, or manually built) it isn't 
too hard to create a bundled app.  The tricky part will be getting mkoctfile to 
work.  Due to a lack of time, I'm delaying further effort on the Macport's 
approach, and am planning to wait until the MXE approach begins to take shape 
before starting again.

Ben