Re: "package video is empty"

[PhilipNienhuis]

First of all, please stop top-posting. Answer below the email.

Then:


Cameron MacArthur wrote
> Andy,
> 
> I re-installed and got rid of the errors, but the error for avifile still
> comes up. I navigated to the packages and I think I may have found the
> problem. All off the package folders contain a bunch of .m files (all of
> their functions) but the video package and a few others are empty except
> for a "packinfo" folder.

That is not a problem at all; it only means the package has no m-files but
only binary (= compiled) procedures. Indeed, that is the case for the video
package.
The (binar) functions live in
<OCTAVE_HOME>/lib/octave/packages/video/<some_arch_specific_folder>/, rather
than in <OCTAVE_HOME>/share/octave/packages/video/
You could see that by trying:
which avifile
and it will show you the path to the avifile command - IF the package was
loaded, see 2.  below.

So it appears to me that the problem you have is twofold:

1. The video package hasn't been maintained for a long time and suffers
bitrot. IOW, it may not work as well as you hope it does.
The last working version that actually worked to some extent for me was the
one bundled with octave-3.4.3_gcc4.5.2 for windows. The video packages
supplied with later Octave binaries for windows (MSVC or MinGW) didn't work
so well for me anymore.

2. (As Andy suggested) The video package probably hasn't been loaded after
you built/installed it. Did you try:
pkg load video
?

If the video package was loaded, and you still have no avifile command, I
think you're out of luck.

Something I don't understand is why you installed the video package at all. 
After all, it has been bundled/included with the Octave-3.6.4_gcc4.6.2
binary. After installing that all you had to do was simply type:
pkg load video
and it would (should) work:

octave:1> help avifile
'avifile' is a function from the file
X:\Octave\Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2\lib\octave\packages\video-1.0.2\i686-pc-mingw32-api-v48+\avifile.oct

Philip




--
View this message in context: 
http://octave.1599824.n4.nabble.com/package-video-is-empty-tp4656346p4656526.html
Sent from the Octave - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.