First let me say that octave is an excellent effort at making available a open-source software comparable to a well-known commercial one. I would like to see that more and more enineering students, researchers and
engnineers use it. But, for that to happen, the installation of octave should be as painless as possible. For example, a mechanical engineer, enthusiastically trying to install octave, may find considerable hiccups.
I have come across one. This is due to the developers of octave using an internal function of a published library (ATLAS). This is NOT good programming practice. You are not supposed to use internal, unpublished functions of a library.
If, for any reason, you must do it, then you should very clearly state in your installation manual the exact version number of that library. This is not done for octave. Possibly, 30 to 40% of the traffic on help-octave list could be reduced if basic "good programming
practices" are followed.
Please take these comment in a constructive way. I wish well of octave and its developer team, but we have to improve on interface to the final user.