[Pkg-octave-devel] [RFC] patch octave to help users install auxiliary packages

[Rafael Laboissiere]

* Mike Miller <mtmiller at ieee.org> [2013-08-01 09:42]:

> Hi, looking for comments on this unfinished idea. What do you think 
> about carrying a patch for octave that would indicate which Debian 
> packages users need to install when certain commands fail? I'm thinking 
> specifically about doc and mkoctfile, are there others? Yes, users can 
> read README.Debian, but we all know not everyone looks there. And if we 
> can provide feedback right in the interpreter, why not?
>
> Only a small number of bug reports have ever come in about this [1,2], 
> but it does get asked on the upstream help list fairly often.
>
> Anyway, here's a quick-n-dirty patch to demonstrate what I'm talking 
> about. Would this be welcome? If so I will test it some more and develop 
> it further.
>
>  [1] http://pad.lv/1194712
>  [2] http://bugs.debian.org/555646
>
> [patch snipped]

This is a pretty good idea but I guess that your solution would be 
implemented as a patch to the Debian package.  This would increase the 
maintenance burden for the DOG.  Another solution would be to incorporate 
the patch upstream but change it such that it will issue the 
error/warning messages only in Debian systems.  Debian systems can be 
detected, for instance, by the presence of the /etc/debian_version file.

Rafael