[Pkg-octave-devel] Packaging Octave 3.8

[Rafael Laboissiere]

* Sébastien Villemot <sebastien at debian.org> [2013-12-10 12:59]:
>
> I have started working on packaging Octave 3.8.0-rc1. If others want to 
> join me in the fun, let me know, and I'll push the state of my 
> incomplete work.

Yes, please, push it.  I think you can push it into the master branch. If 
we need to release fixes for 3.6 in the meanwhile, we can create a side 
branch.

> First, note that there will be a transition from liboctave1 to 
> liboctave2, so we'll have to coordinate with the Release Team before 
> uploading to unstable. In the meantime, we can use experimental.

Sure, having it in experimental can allow people to test the package 
before the final release and can be also beneficial for upstream.

> There are also a few decisions that need to be taken, regarding the JIT 
> compiler and the GUI. I am inclined to follow upstream's 
> recommendations, which are to compile octave with both the JIT and the 
> GUI in, but without activating them by default at runtime (there is a 
> command-line option for activating the GUI, and there is an Octave 
> command for activating the JIT).

I would also follow the upstream recommendations.

> Also, there are now 3 top-level binaries instead of one: octave, 
> octave-cli and octave-gui. I am inclined to ship them in the same 
> binary package (octave), but another option would be to create another 
> binary package without the GUI stuff, for systems with limited 
> resources.

Yes, please, split the packages.  People running Octave from batches 
(like I do, sometimes) will appreciate it.

> Let us know what you think about these matters, or about other issues I 
> have overlooked.

Thanks for your work!

Rafael