Re: Second attampt at new octave-forge web site

[David Bateman]

Joe Koski wrote:
> on 10/16/06 2:05 PM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
>
>   
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Soren and I have been working to address the remaining issues on the
>> octave-forge website and the issues raised from our previous test site.
>> Please check http://octave.dbateman.org
>>
>> The changes we made include
>>
>> * The most noticeable change is that we changed the site from green to
>> blue, to make a clear distinction between the octave and octave-forge
>> sites. We also changed the sombrero logo to green. Neither Soren or I
>> are web designers, so any other thoughts would be appreciated on how to
>> address this request from John.
>>
>> * The front-page now has a "Recent News" heading. There is also a News
>> Archive that replaces the RELEASE-NOTES from the monolithic octave-forge.
>>
>> * The package page now uses javascript to hide the description, till the
>> package title is clicked. This allows a much denser list of packages
>>
>> * All of the webpages have been passed through http;//validator.w3.org
>> and the CSS file through http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/. There is
>> one remaining errors of the "text-align:" in the div#sf_logo section. If
>> you know a fix please tell?
>>
>> * The categories index has been made consistent, and alphabetically sorted
>>
>> * The package function references now contain only the functions in the
>> package itself listed alphabetically. The full categories index is still
>> available from the documentation page. This makes a clear distinction
>> between code in one package or another and those functions in octave itself
>>
>> * The tar-balls of the packages have the same sub-directory name as the
>> package itself.
>>
>> The problems that we know remain and don't propose to fix before a
>> release are
>>
>> * The GPC and graceplot packages have not been converted to the package
>> manager
>>
>> * The CSS file has the one remaining error discussed above
>>
>> * We really should move www/ to doc/htdocs to simplify the octave-forge
>> source tree and make the install on the website easier.
>>
>> Can you please suggest any further changes that you'd like to this site.
>> If there are no further comments, Soren and I propose to take the site
>> live later this week.
>>
>> Regards
>> David
>>     
>
> David,
>
> First, let me say that I think that you and Soren are headed in the right
> direction with octave-forge. I think the new package scheme, once worked
> out, will be better for both users and maintainers.
>
> My initial comments here are in my role as the perfect analog for the
> average "dumber-than-snot" Mac user.
>
> For the record, this is with OS X 10.4.8, Xcode-2.4 developer tools, and
> octave-2.9.9 built with g95 on a G5 PowerPC Mac. This is the latest OS, but
> not the latest Intel machine.
>
> The first thing that I noticed was that Mac OS X has a habit of un-gzipping
> any downloaded file into a just plain .tar file. Yes, I could find the
> correct box to check or uncheck in the Finder preferences, but the average
> Mac user doesn't usually go there. Should pkg be smart enough to look at the
> extension? I know that .tar.gz has other alternates such as .tgz. Excuse me
> if you have already thought about all of this.
>
> As an initial test, I downloaded image-1.0.0.tar.gz from your test site,
> and, as I said, this immediately became image-1.0.0.tar. I moved the .tar
> file into a folder called /Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages and
> tried
>
>   pkg install image-1.0.0.tar
>
> but I got an error, so I gzipped it back into a .tar.gz and tried
>
>   pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>
> and I got pretty much the same errors:
>
> GNU Octave, version 2.9.9 (powerpc-apple-darwin8.8.0).
> Copyright (C) 2006 John W. Eaton.
>
> <snip>
>
> octave:1> pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
> warning: You have not defined an installation prefix, so the following will
> be used: /Users/jakoski/octave/
> tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>
>
> Octave was started in the same working directory as image-1.0.0.tar.gz.
>
> Then I tried help pkg, and noticed that it's not complete yet. How to fix
> this should probably be referenced somewhere in the final help package. I
> have no problem with the default location for the package of ~/octave.
>
> My first guess is that octave is having trouble with the Apple tar, but I
> can't confirm that. The irony is that on my old Mac, I had to type man
> gnutar to get the man file for tar, although tar -xvf etc. works just fine.
> On the new Mac OS, man tar works just fine, as does tar.
>
> One other issue. On Macs, to install files into /usr/local (which doesn't
> exist until the Mac user creates it), you must, typically, "sudo make
> install" and then enter your "administrator" password. Should there be a
> provision for installing into protected areas, or should that be left for
> only the more experienced users? Yes, you could also, like any *IX, log in
> as root and do the installation.
>
> As always, I can try things to see if they work. Let me know what to try
> next.
>
> Joe
>
>   

Joe,

I suspect this might be fixed in the CVS. Could you take the pkg
function from

http://velveeta.che.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/octave/scripts/pkg/pkg.m?rev=1.21;content-type=text%2Fplain

and use it instead to see if it helps? You'll also need

http://velveeta.che.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/octave/scripts/miscellaneous/compare_versions.m?rev=1.1;content-type=text%2Fplain

Regards
David

-- 
David Bateman                                address@hidden
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