Re: some thoughts about the future of Octave

[Paul Kienzle]

On Wed, Dec 13, 2000 at 04:31:58PM -0500, John A. Turner wrote:
> >>>>> "JC" == Cardoso  <iso-8859-1>:
> 
> JC> John Eaton has always been concerned with both the code "quality"  and
> JC> the code correcteness. In my opinion, this approach has keep away from
> JC> Octave many potential developers.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I would hope that any potential
> developers *not* concerned with code quality and correctness *continue* to
> stay away from the project

Correctness yes, but backed up by good tests.  I wrote some test functions
which allow you to incorporate demo and test code directly into Octave
scripts, but haven't received any feedback on them in many months.
I'm hesitant to spread them through all of my matlab compatibility
functions without knowing in what form they will be incorporated into
Octave itself, or indeed if they will be included at all.

Code quality is much less important, at least on a function by function
basis.  It is easy enough to make a correct function faster and cleaner
should someone have the need.  

Quality at a higher level is important, but that can be addressed with
periodic house cleaning to make sure that the different parts of the
program have clean interfaces between them.  This ought to be one of the
first task for Octave 2.3 should such an animal ever come into being.
Anyone have the skills, the time, and the interest?

Clear release goals for 2.4 would also be nice, but judging by the
failure of other projects to stick with release goals, this is too
much to hope for.

Paul Kienzle
address@hidden



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