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Re: general package, inputParser, 4.0.0 release


From: Philip Nienhuis
Subject: Re: general package, inputParser, 4.0.0 release
Date: Fri, 22 May 2015 10:14:25 -0700 (PDT)

Carnë Draug wrote
> Hi
> 
> the general package currently implements the inputParser class.  The
> upcoming
> Octave release 4.0.0 also implements this class.  These implementations
> are
> very similar but different enough that any of its use will require changes
> to continue working.  Loading the general package will shadow the class
> but
> Octave will not warn about it (seems like it only warns about shadowing
> functions).
> 
> Currently, the best way to distinguish between the two is by checking the
> path to the function like so:
> 
>     if (strfind (which ("inputParser"), ["@inputParser" filesep
> "inputParser.m"]))
>       ...
>     else
>       ...
>     endfif
> 
> but we can't really expect users, in special new users that are not aware
> of
> this history, to figure it out.
> 
> In addition, a few weeks ago [1] I expressed my wish of marking the
> general
> package as an unmaintained package.  I didn't feel there was much of
> opposition to that (but can also be because the email was a fairly long
> rant
> that few read).
> 
> This said, I see two possible resolutions:
> 
>   1. make a new release of the general package without @inputParser and
>   dependent on (octave >= 4.0.0).
> 
>   2. make a new release of the general package, exactly the same as the
>   last release, and dependent on (octave < 4.0.0).
> 
> Any of the two would prevent @inputParser and classdef's inputParser to
> co-exist.  I prefer the second option for the following reasons:
> 
>   * users that wrote code for the old version had his code dependent
>     on general.  If it is used on the Octave 4.0.0 it will fail to load
>     the general package forcing them to become aware of this difference.
> 
>   * users of old versions of Octave can still use the "latest" version
>     of the package without having to dig on the old releases.
> 
>   * since we are "deprecating" the general package, we should make it
> easier
>     for the people that will stay on the old versions of Octave, the ones
>     released when it was "supported".

Wasn't there a discussion about the OF general package a while ago in which
I suggested to make a release /wo inputParser?  here in the maintainers ML
or in the bug tracker (can't find it now). IIRC that discussion was related
to the linear-algebra package.

How about the other functions in OF-general? dict* seems to be superseded by
current struct functionality; I have no idea about the usability of the
other functions.

Philip



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