Re: Is the 3.8 "release ” official?

[PhilipNienhuis]

John W. Eaton wrote
> :
> <snip>
> :
> I don't think we have completely functional installers (including a
> selection of packages) for Windows or OS X yet.  If we are going to
> distribute "official" binaries, then who will be making them and from
> where will we distribute them?

I could make an MXE-cross built Windows installer this week (after New Years
Eve I'll have time).
Do we first have installer-release candidates somewhere?

As to a formal installer release, would the Octave-Forge site still be good
enough? or do we need a site with a gentle or an obtrusive stimulus for
donating-before-downloading?

Anyway I think that before building it should be discussed here in this ML
what should be included.

In "my own" installers (that I've regularly built, used and tested at work
and at home in the last months) I have included ~12 OF packages (newest
versions) + all Java class libs for spreadsheet I/O (needed for the OF io
package), plus a few MinGW utils not yet included in MXE (or maybe they are
by now, I'll have to check). Altogether a 200+ MB installer.
I'll have to dive into the licenses of those Java .jar files to see how safe
we are. Note that Nitzan has been including all of them in the current 3.6.x
MinGW OF pkg installer archives on Octave-Forge.
Also I've (manually/hard-coded) patched the installer-generated shortcuts
for the Windows Start menu. 
The NSIS installer is still quite basic; e.g., no desktop icon yet. Should
we start the GUI from the desktop icon? I'd surmise Windows users simply
wouldn't expect otherwise.
Furthermore I have no idea how robust the installer is (in terms of catching
e.g., write permission errors etc).

In addition I'm still busy upgrading the OF io package - expected to be
ready within a few days (polishing stage right now). Would be nice to
include io-2.0.0 in the installer.

Philip




--
View this message in context: 
http://octave.1599824.n4.nabble.com/Is-the-3-8-release-official-tp4660438p4660457.html
Sent from the Octave - Maintainers mailing list archive at Nabble.com.