Re: macro for building packages with different Octave versions

[Julien Bect]

Le 17/07/2017 à 16:37, Olaf Till a écrit :
> symbols in Octave sometimes change, requiring some consideration if
> packages with C++ code should be compatible with several major Octave
> versions.
>
> Some time ago Carnë offered some tests for single deprecated symbols
> in Octave.
>
> My strategy has been not to test, but to use the deprecated symbols as
> long as possible and then to switch to the new symbols. But this
> strategy doesn't seem to work, since not all deprecated symbols are
> available for more than one major Octave version.
>
> Trying to simplify checking for and building with simple cases of
> alternative Octave symbols, I made an autoconf macro which does the
> more tedious part of the job. It probably should be made available at
> the Octave Forge website. My programming of autoconf macros is not
> very good, so I'd appreciate comments and improvements. The macro and
> an example call are at:
>
> https://savannah.gnu.org/patch/index.php?9410
>
> The macro file contains a further explanation in the comment block
> above the second macro.

Hi Olaf,

I fully support your initiative, because I think that supporting several 
major versions of Octave for as many OF packages as possible is important.

For instance, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (EOL April 2019) still has Octave 3.8.1 
and Debian Jessie (EOL June 2018, LTS June 2020) has Octave 3.8.2.

I can't help you with the autoconf part, however, since my own 
experience with autoconf is very limited (a few hacks on the octave-gsl 
package, nothing more).

Concerning the diffusion of these macros, one idea would be to create a 
simple OF package that contains both the macros themselves and a few 
example oct-files with BISTs.  This would make it easier to test that 
the macros are effectively working on a large range of Octave versions.

@++
Julien