Re: required makeinfo version

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 26 April 2013 23:20, Leo Liu <address@hidden> wrote:
> A more productive view and one (I think) that helps GNU is to make
> octave work well everywhere regardless of the OS (example: R and emacs).

I'm not saying we shouldn't make Octave work on Mac OS X or other
hostile operating systems. I'm just saying certain operating systems
are hostile to their users. One consequence of this is that it's
difficult to get Octave working there acceptably and reliably.

> We should carefully balance the pros and cons of the choice of texinfo
> version. If it doesn't work well with the system's default texinfo it
> will drive away new users.

If the operating system is hostile to free software, it doesn't matter
which versions we pick. The current solution I have in mind for making
Octave work well on Mac OS X is to cross-compile everything from GNU,
including texinfo. This apparently works well for GNU Lilypond, whence
I got the idea.

- Jordi G. H.