Re: Octave Forge website / third sentence on the "Home" page

[Philip Nienhuis]

<Michael Goffioul -windows pkg maintainer- cc'd>

Julien Bect wrote:
> Le 09/08/2014 17:03, PhilipNienhuis a écrit :
> > Julien Bect wrote
> > > > Hello all,
> > > >
> > > > Just a tiny suggestion concerning the Octave Forge website... I would
> > > > remove the third sentence on the "Home" page :
> > > >
> > > > "In general the packages are designed to work with the latest
> > > > development version of Octave, but it should be possible to use most
> > > > packages with earlier versions."
> > > >
> > > > Indeed,
> > > >
> > > > 1) the first part is a little scary. It suggests (to me) that some
> > > > packages might actually depend on features provided by unreleased
> > > > versions of Octave... Is it really something that the Octave Forge
> > > > maintainers would consider doing ? Not all users want to use
> > > development
> > > > versions.
> > The windows package cannot even be installed in Octave-4.1.0+ as
> > octave-map
> > stuff has been removed (IIRC that is what the error messages suggest).
> > I need to install it in 3.9.0+ and then the installed windows package
> > works
> > OK in 4.1.0+ as well. So in a way what's currently on the OF site is
> > somewhat true, but....
>
> According to its DESCRIPTION, the "windows" package should work for
> Octave >= 3.2.0.

And it does.

> If it doesn't work in Octave 3.6.4 or 3.8.1 (does it ?)

Yes it does.

> then I would say that the package is broken... If it doesn't work in
> Octave 3.8.2-RC2, 3.9.0+ or 4.1.0+, then it's not broken yet (but is
> likely to become broken sooner or later :).

It cannot be installed, but isn't broken otherwise; to be compiled the 
binary modules need stuff deprecated in 3.7.+ and dropped in 4.1.x.
However built binary modules (e.g., built in 3.9.0+) do work properly in 
4.1.0+, as the binary interface (ABI?) apparently is still sufficiently 
compatible.
(FYI: I use a mixed Octave-3.9.0+/4.1.0+ installations on Windows (see 
patch #8469).)

BTW this is also valid for other OF packages with binary module sources 
that need octave-map (I'm not sure if e.g. the control package has 
similar issues).

Another issue is that a windows package that is built in Octave 3.8.x 
doesn't work in 3.9.0+ and higher because the load command doesn't seem 
to properly recognize the binary modules. Same holds for control etc.
Probably a moot point as few people would be able to mix them on Windows 
systems like one can on *nix systems.
But anyway that is the main reason that I didn't include 3.8.x versions 
in the multi-version binary MXE installer of patch #8469); I'll post 
separately about that later on (I'm just back from holiday, cleaning up 
at home and attacking the back log at work has higher priorities this week).

> > It would be better to say that OF packages are supposed to work with the
> > latest *stable* version of Octave.
>
> I essentially agree, although I don't think the word "stable" is used on
> the Octave website. I suggest : "The packages are designed to work with
> the latest release of Octave, but it is usually possible to use them
> with earlier versions (see 'Dependencies' in the detailed description of
> the package)."

I'd say "latest release" would be preferrable.

Philip