Re: [gnu-prog-discuss] Installation of 3.8.2 on Mac

[Clark Dunson]

Hi everybody;

I’m an observer and do not really have ‘license’ to chime in on this thread, but I have built Octave a number of different ways.  It seems that we are suffering from too many build configurations and straddling a paradigm shift on OSX that is leading away from /usr/local, etc.

To me the ideal goal on OSX would be to distribute the Octave.app through the Apple App Store.  This will reach the widest audience.  This includes up through mkoctfile and bundles plotting and GUI.  One target to test, one target to distribute.  

To create the development version, we could add an option within Octave to create the developer tree for the particular release (eg. a menu GUI item) where the user specifies a single location (or multiple) to place all source (allowing us to pre-configure CMAKE almost all the way).  The Octave.app itself then either downloads every single piece of source (that it was built with) that is needed into a single directory from a single tarball, or it could extract the source stored within the app bundle itself.  This would amount to enforcing dependencies, ending the use of macports and homebrew, and aligning source code in such a way that branches start with each major OSX release unambiguously.  Updates to pieces of the code (say more recent Octave tree, etc.) would be placed/checked out into the same location.  Do not touch the rest of the OS, ie. if someone wants to run their built/dev version of Octave, they know where it is, and how to launch it.  This is simple, and advanced developers can still play tricks relocating trees, branches, etc.

As far as versioning of gcc, etc. goes, let XCode rule.  Wouldn’t our lives be simpler if we had the App Store manage separate installs for Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, etc. than the mishmash we have now?  I know it’s a helluva first step to sort out from here, but once done we could participate in beta releases of future versions of OSX, and deliver timely updates much more easily (could also be done on Linux/Windows).

Tackling this will place Octave in a more competitive position and has the possibility of making our OSX and development headaches get much simpler.

Just thinking out loud ...

THANK YOU

Clark