Re: How to install Octave 4.0.1 on OS X Yosemite

[Sebastian]

Dear Mac-Octavers,

I have put already some effort in a homebrew-based octave dmg as you know. I 
really appreciate to finish this project since otherwise my work is lost. 
However, I need (experienced) people to help me testing and debugging it. I 
think the main work is done. So how should we proceed? 

> I put in most of the effort for the macports based bundle. The macports 
> approach had the potential of being easily automated and maintained. But most 
> important to me, the result was a self contained app-bundle (i.e. if you 
> CMD-Delete the application, everything is gone … with nothing left behind in 
> /usr/local or some other location).
I agree, however the same can be done with homebrew. Everything is compiled and 
stored in /Application/Octave.app.

> The large size was ultimately due to three “features”.
> (1) The build tools were included to ensure that packages would be built with 
> a compatible tool chain.
> (2) A complete TeX distribution was included since that was only macports 
> supported method to include TeXinfo (needed for the help command).
> (3) X11 was included due to it being a dependency for the xfig which the 
> transfig utility is part of.
Yes, Macports installs even libraries that are present in MacOS. This can be an 
advantage and drawback (homebrew tries to reduced this duplication). Openblas, 
Appleblas and Atlas are examples where this can be become crucial...

> If I were return to working on a bundled-app, I’d *might* still favor 
> macports. But I’d make some important changes to reduce the size.
> (1) With Yosemite most of the toolchain is Xcode. For fortran gcc is still 
> needed. However, if the version of Xcode and gcc used are documented, it 
> would not be necessary to include them.
> (2) Include texinfo by constructing a trivial port/package for texinfo.
> (3) Include transfig by constructing a trival port/package for transfig 
> (without the rest of xfig and its dependencies).
> (4) Exclude gnuplot since Octave now has native graphics.
I do include gcc because of fortran, I skip the tex installation, I install 
texinfo (the version of apple is too old) and transfig via homebrew. I still 
use gnuplot because users have random crashes. I really would be glad if people 
could help me debugging this.

> I think a gnuplot app-bundle would also be a good idea.
like Aquaplot?

> My regular job is now keeping me very busy and I’ve added three kids at home 
> since I worked on an app-bundle. Returning to this project is a significant 
> way won’t be happening for me anytime soon. However, if there is some way I 
> can be of help I’m up for assisting.
I have the same problem but my daytime job sometimes requires an easy octave 
installation for all platforms :)

> In any event, I also experienced an unexpected lack of “enthusiasm”. Mostly 
> because the Mac OS X users in Octave’s community are happy with homebrew, 
> fink, or macpots.. However, I’ve come to expect there are a large number of 
> potential user for an app-bundle who are students with short term needs and 
> are not privy the the octave community. I expect a reliable app-bundle would 
> get a lot of use and would bring a lot of value, and would like to offer 
> encouragement for your continued effort.
Thanks. 

You find my files here: 

https://github.com/schoeps/octave_installer

You need only to download the script "install_octave.sh". If you run it locally 
it installs everything necessary underneath /Application/Octave.app (or any 
other directory that you choose). It will not mess with your current macports 
or whatever, see below. If you find a bug, please mail me or use Github's 
bugtracker. What do you think? 


Sebastian