From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Thu Dec 7 22:46:04 2000 Subject: Re: The future of Octave From: Andrew Bainbridge-Smith To: help-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 15:45:47 +1100 I have been a frequent user of MATLAB over the years. It is a great tool for the signal and image processing that I do (particular its ability to render complex 3D "images" and the SIMULINK tool). However, I moved jobs recent and haven't been able to convince my boss to purchase MATLAB, and in my search for an alternative I found OCTAVE. Aside from the multi-dimensional "matrices", rendering and SIMULINK issues, I suspect (haven't tried everything yet) OCTAVE has everything in it I want --- just need to convert my *.m code base. I think OCTAVE is likely to have a great future provided a core team is prepared to take it on. My main reluctance is only that C++ makes me go weak at the knees. One of the key functions of the maintainers is to foster an inclusive framework to the entire OCTAVE community, so as to minimise forking of development. This inclusiveness need not mean a less "clean" code base, as every possible feature is added. Inclusiveness is achieved by open and clear communications --- which probably means good documentation like a maintained TODO and FAQ lists etc. It seems to me that SourceForge offers a clean and consistent environment for such communications. It also seems like a good home in that its function is to provide a home for packages, over-coming the problem of finding a generous host individual and their organisation --- what happens when that individual leaves? I am of course oblivious of the shortcomings of SourceForge, don't know anything about the LWN editorial Dirk (is it that the host is being overloaded?) Anyway another host like SourceForge would be acceptable. My thanks to all the Octave developers, Andrew BS -- Dr Andrew Bainbridge-Smith Senior Research Engineer Vision Technology Development Group CSIRO Manufacturing Science and Technology Australia ------------------------------------------------------------- Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL. Octave's home on the web: http://www.octave.org How to fund new projects: http://www.octave.org/funding.html Subscription information: http://www.octave.org/archive.html -------------------------------------------------------------