[Pkg-octave-devel] Bug#741097: octave: nox package of Octave

[Mike Miller]

On Sat, Mar 08, 2014 at 13:48:08 +0000, Arno Onken wrote:
> Starting with version 3.8, the octave package contains a GUI based on
> the Qt toolkit. An `octave-cli' executable which is not linked against
> Qt is provided in the package, but there is no octave package that does
> not depend on Qt. Packages like emacs and gnuplot have nox alternatives.
> A similar octave package would be a great asset.

Can you explain specifically what you think the advantages of having a
"nox" version of octave would be? I'm not refuting your request, just
that you haven't specifically said what the problem with the current
approach is and what specific benefits would derive from having a nox
package, just that "these others are doing it".

We considered this when starting work on packaging octave 3.8, please
take a look at the discussions (thread starting at [1]) we had where we
did look at a few different aspects and decided to keep everything in
one package for now.

Also keep in mind that 3.8 is a transitional period for the octave
command-line and GUI modes, upstream may yet make changes about how
octave is run in one mode or the other. For all we know, there may not
be a separate octave-cli executable in the 4.0 version. I'm not saying
this is likely or that I'm in favor of it, just that this is still a
developmental period and things could change by 4.0.

[1] https://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-octave-devel/2013-December/010385.html

-- 
mike
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