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Octave's goals and motivations (Re: GUI)


From: Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
Subject: Octave's goals and motivations (Re: GUI)
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:16:44 -0500

On 28 September 2011 18:40, tilas <address@hidden> wrote:
> I am not a programmer, so can't help much on this one, except to
> point to the GUIoctave (http://guioctave.com/) - it's a native
> Windows app written with MFC (according to the author). It works
> with octave 3.2.4 - Have a look. Maybe you can contact the author.

We've tried to contact him. He hasn't released source, so we cannot
use his work. I have just contacted him again, and I hope he is more
receptive to our need for source code.

> BTW, I do not think anyone sees Octave as "just a Matlab clone of
> mediocre quality". Though it is a Matlab clone

I am almost certain that none of us working on Octave see it as a
Matlab clone. We frequently diverge from Matlab behaviour when we
think Matlab is doing something very stupid, as it often does:

    http://abandonmatlab.wordpress.com/

As I see it, our goals instead are (1) to create a community of users
where scientific computing can be freely shared without the legal and
social shackles that the Mathworks imposes on its users and (2) to
make it so that all of the frequently free work that has already been
done for Matlab doesn't stay locked-in to Matlab.

So we try to stay source compatible with Matlab as far as is
reasonable (usually whatever the Mathworks documents). Everything else
is far less important as far as "cloning" goes, the graphical design
of the GUI included. The GNU C++ compiler isn't a clone of Microsoft
Visual C++ and Google Chrome isn't a clone of Internet Explorer. If
you see Octave as a Matlab clone, you will fail to see the
improvements and extra features Octave has made over Matlab if all you
see is a lack of a GUI.

But don't get me wrong, we are writing the GUI... I myself am studying
Octave's build system so that I can help with integrating the current
incarnation of the GUI into Octave. Even if I don't understand the
usefulness of a GUI, I have to believe all the people who tell me it's
useful. Maybe I will even come to see it as useful myself.

> Now in general to all the unix(ego)centered  "scrap Windows and use
> Linux instead " etc.
> 1. grow up and change your attitude.

Octave is *GNU* Octave. Part of our goal is to ensure that you don't
need non-free software to work. In particular, you shouldn't need a
non-free operating system to work either. This is why free operating
systems are the primary target. We make Octave for Windows users
because this is the best way to get them free software while they are
still using Windows. We don't do this to legitimise the Windows
hegemony. We do this to fight it by infiltrating it. >:)

> 2. consider this simple fact of life: between 80%-90% of all
> desktops are windows vs about 1%-5% linux

There are many other unfortunate facts of life. The number of
malnourished humans in 2008 was 923 million, almost one in five. Sony,
Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are trying to control what you can do
with your books, your movies, your computers, your communication. Most
of the world's computers use Windows. But that doesn't mean we should
accept any of these facts of life nor not attempt to improve them.

- Jordi G. H.


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