Re: Second attampt at new octave-forge web site

[David Bateman]

Joe Koski wrote:
> on 10/17/06 1:03 PM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
> 
>> Joe Koski wrote:
>>> on 10/17/06 2:02 AM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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/pk
>>>> g/
>>>> 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/mi
>>>> sc
>>>> ellaneous/compare_versions.m?rev=1.1;content-type=text%2Fplain
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>> David
>>> David,
>>>
>>> Some progress. I got the CVS files that you suggested, and placed them in
>>> the folder with the tar.gz.
>>>
>>> When I tried the run, I got:
>>>
>>> octave:1> ls
>>> compare_versions.m      image-1.0.0.tar.gz      pkg.m
>>> octave:2> pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>> 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:2> which tar
>>> tar is the user-defined function from the file
>>> /usr/local/share/octave/2.9.9/m/miscellaneous/tar.m
>>> octave:3> exit
>>>
>>> Then I tried:
>>>
>>> jakoski$ tar -xvzf image-1.0.0.tar.gz -C ~/octave/
>>>
>>> and the .tar.gz unpacked correctly into /octave in my home directory, but,
>>> obviously, did not run Makefile to build the .oct files.
>>>
>>> Should I be poking around in tar.m looking for the reason? Do I need the CVS
>>> tar.m?
>>>
>>> Joe
>>>
>>
>> It should be in untar.m rather than tar.m. However I don't see anything
>> there that should be the cause of the issue. Perhaps you need the
>> absolute path to tar. Could you try
>>
>> pkg install <path_to_pkg>/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>
>> and see if it helps... I'm at a loss to explain why you are seeing the
>> problem like this..
>>
>> Regards
>> David
> 
> David,
> 
> First, I tried placing quotes around the package name without success, then
> I tried the full path to the package.
> 
> octave:1> pkg install "image-1.0.0.tar.gz"
> 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:1> pkg install
> /Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
> tar: This does not look like a tar archive
> tar: Skipping to next header
> tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
> tar: Read 7212 bytes from
> /Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
> error: tar: tar exited with status =
> octave:1> 
> 
> The second try is interesting. It tried to open something, at least.
> 
> I then tried
> 
> untar("/Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz",
> "/Users/jakoski/octave");
> 
> and I got the same errors as with pkg and the full path. Therefore the
> problem is definitely within untar.m.
> 
> Finally, to see if it is a syntax problem, I tried
> 
> octave:1> pkg("install","image-1.0.0.tar.gz");
> 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:1> 
> 
> Which is at least consistent.
> 
> Next?
> 
> Joe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

And if you type system("which tar") in octave? Where is your tar binary
coming from? Note in untar the call to tar is "tar -x -v -f %s". Does
the Mac version of tar require the "-z" flag for gzipped files, or can
it probe the type without the "-z" flag?

D.