I know we've had this discussion before, but I want to revisit it
again. I know this is bikeshedding[1], so this will be my final word
on the matter, I promise. Or at least publicly, if anyone wants to
keep arguing this with me, we can do so while only the NSA watches.
I really think the next Octave release should be called "Octave 4".
Not "3.8".
I will restate my case, with a few extra bits of data that we now
have:
1) Gauging by the demand for it as well as the development buzz
that it has spurred, the GUI alone is gonna be *huge*. It's such
a big feature that a change in the major revision is warranted,
even if our other big features like JIT compiling or OpenGL are
still betaish.
2) It's good marketing. "Octave 4" is a simple, single number to
remember. It's easy to convey to people which Octave version has
the GUI, and which Octave version started to make a point of
also making timely Windows and Mac OS X binary releases.
3) The ".0" part of "4.0" gives an indication that we are trying
something big and new here. Then 4.2 and beyond will start
adding more polish, perhaps JIT or classdef, but for now the
".0" will express to our users that this is a major change. I
hope that this will earn us some leeway and indulgence from our
users if not everything is great, as long as the GUI is great.
4) I would like to have a website redesign to go along with the new
release, and a big "4" would look very nice in this redesign.
I won't be terribly disappointed if we do decide to go with "3.8", but
"Octave 4" just sounds so nice.
- Jordi G. H.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikeshedding