Re: Choosing graphics backend for documentation

[Michael Godfrey]

On 08/17/2015 01:52 AM, Ben Abbott wrote:
> > On Aug 16, 2015, at 8:19 PM, Michael Godfrey<address@hidden>  wrote:
> > >
> > >On 08/16/2015 10:59 PM, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> > > >>What figures can't be drawn?
> > > >>
> > > >>Dan
> > >Besides Fig. 15-7, the Plotting section will need extensive rewrite to
> > >document a system with gnuplot only.
> I don’t think the documentation should change if only gnuplot is present … is 
> that what you meant?
>
> For me, the question is whether or not the documentation can be generated only 
> using gnuplot.
>
> Ben
It appears that I do not understand what is being proposed here. If the 
indent is to
provide users of Octave with a version which only supports gnuplot for 
plotting then
the current manual is not appropriate for them. There has always been an 
issue due
to the fact that there has only been one version of the manual, but 
Octave can be
built with or without various features.  But, the maintenance of a 
single Octave
overrides this.  Note that if OpenGL is not available the gui will not 
be either.

This gnuplot only system seems to be needed only in the case where users 
are building Octave
from source. Most users will install a packaged Octave. If they want a 
Manual they
have to obtain it from the Octave site.  The reason for including the 
Manual source
files is for developers use. So, it appears that the only use for this 
option is for
developers use on systems which lack any working OpenGL.  Most 
developers will
need to have a system which is capable of generating a fully functional 
Octave for
testing. This requires OpenGL.

If this effort is intended to provide users a new version of Octave 
which does not depend on
OpenGL than this should be made explicit and agreed on through the 
developers list.

The current Manual states:
> Earlier versions of Octave provided plotting through the use of 
> gnuplot. This capability is
> still available. But, a newer plotting capability is provided by 
> access to OpenGL. Which
> plotting system is used is controlled by the graphics_toolkit 
> function. See Section 15.4.7
> [Graphics Toolkits], page 403.

I do not think that this should be changed to state something like 
"versions of Octave
which lack OpenGL, and therefore lack the graphics_toolkit and the GUI 
interface are
also supported. Please see the release documentation for details..."

This is what I meant to say about the Manual.

If it is decided to bring this up on the developers list, I will 
indicate that I do not agree to
the introduction of  new versions of Octave which lack the current 
graphics capabilities.

Michael