Re: Second attampt at new octave-forge web site

[Joe Koski]

on 10/17/06 1:03 PM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:

> Joe Koski wrote:
>> on 10/17/06 2:02 AM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
>> 
>>> Joe Koski wrote:
>>>> on 10/16/06 2:05 PM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>   
>>>>> Dear All,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Soren and I have been working to address the remaining issues on the
>>>>> octave-forge website and the issues raised from our previous test site.
>>>>> Please check http://octave.dbateman.org
>>>>> 
>>>>> The changes we made include
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The most noticeable change is that we changed the site from green to
>>>>> blue, to make a clear distinction between the octave and octave-forge
>>>>> sites. We also changed the sombrero logo to green. Neither Soren or I
>>>>> are web designers, so any other thoughts would be appreciated on how to
>>>>> address this request from John.
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The front-page now has a "Recent News" heading. There is also a News
>>>>> Archive that replaces the RELEASE-NOTES from the monolithic octave-forge.
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The package page now uses javascript to hide the description, till the
>>>>> package title is clicked. This allows a much denser list of packages
>>>>> 
>>>>> * All of the webpages have been passed through http;//validator.w3.org
>>>>> and the CSS file through http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/. There is
>>>>> one remaining errors of the "text-align:" in the div#sf_logo section. If
>>>>> you know a fix please tell?
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The categories index has been made consistent, and alphabetically sorted
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The package function references now contain only the functions in the
>>>>> package itself listed alphabetically. The full categories index is still
>>>>> available from the documentation page. This makes a clear distinction
>>>>> between code in one package or another and those functions in octave
>>>>> itself
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The tar-balls of the packages have the same sub-directory name as the
>>>>> package itself.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The problems that we know remain and don't propose to fix before a
>>>>> release are
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The GPC and graceplot packages have not been converted to the package
>>>>> manager
>>>>> 
>>>>> * The CSS file has the one remaining error discussed above
>>>>> 
>>>>> * We really should move www/ to doc/htdocs to simplify the octave-forge
>>>>> source tree and make the install on the website easier.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Can you please suggest any further changes that you'd like to this site.
>>>>> If there are no further comments, Soren and I propose to take the site
>>>>> live later this week.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Regards
>>>>> David
>>>>>     
>>>> David,
>>>> 
>>>> First, let me say that I think that you and Soren are headed in the right
>>>> direction with octave-forge. I think the new package scheme, once worked
>>>> out, will be better for both users and maintainers.
>>>> 
>>>> My initial comments here are in my role as the perfect analog for the
>>>> average "dumber-than-snot" Mac user.
>>>> 
>>>> For the record, this is with OS X 10.4.8, Xcode-2.4 developer tools, and
>>>> octave-2.9.9 built with g95 on a G5 PowerPC Mac. This is the latest OS, but
>>>> not the latest Intel machine.
>>>> 
>>>> The first thing that I noticed was that Mac OS X has a habit of un-gzipping
>>>> any downloaded file into a just plain .tar file. Yes, I could find the
>>>> correct box to check or uncheck in the Finder preferences, but the average
>>>> Mac user doesn't usually go there. Should pkg be smart enough to look at
>>>> the
>>>> extension? I know that .tar.gz has other alternates such as .tgz. Excuse me
>>>> if you have already thought about all of this.
>>>> 
>>>> As an initial test, I downloaded image-1.0.0.tar.gz from your test site,
>>>> and, as I said, this immediately became image-1.0.0.tar. I moved the .tar
>>>> file into a folder called /Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages and
>>>> tried
>>>> 
>>>>   pkg install image-1.0.0.tar
>>>> 
>>>> but I got an error, so I gzipped it back into a .tar.gz and tried
>>>> 
>>>>   pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>>> 
>>>> and I got pretty much the same errors:
>>>> 
>>>> GNU Octave, version 2.9.9 (powerpc-apple-darwin8.8.0).
>>>> Copyright (C) 2006 John W. Eaton.
>>>> 
>>>> <snip>
>>>> 
>>>> octave:1> pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>>> warning: You have not defined an installation prefix, so the following will
>>>> be used: /Users/jakoski/octave/
>>>> tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
>>>> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
>>>> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
>>>> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Octave was started in the same working directory as image-1.0.0.tar.gz.
>>>> 
>>>> Then I tried help pkg, and noticed that it's not complete yet. How to fix
>>>> this should probably be referenced somewhere in the final help package. I
>>>> have no problem with the default location for the package of ~/octave.
>>>> 
>>>> My first guess is that octave is having trouble with the Apple tar, but I
>>>> can't confirm that. The irony is that on my old Mac, I had to type man
>>>> gnutar to get the man file for tar, although tar -xvf etc. works just fine.
>>>> On the new Mac OS, man tar works just fine, as does tar.
>>>> 
>>>> One other issue. On Macs, to install files into /usr/local (which doesn't
>>>> exist until the Mac user creates it), you must, typically, "sudo make
>>>> install" and then enter your "administrator" password. Should there be a
>>>> provision for installing into protected areas, or should that be left for
>>>> only the more experienced users? Yes, you could also, like any *IX, log in
>>>> as root and do the installation.
>>>> 
>>>> As always, I can try things to see if they work. Let me know what to try
>>>> next.
>>>> 
>>>> Joe
>>>> 
>>>>   
>>> Joe,
>>> 
>>> I suspect this might be fixed in the CVS. Could you take the pkg
>>> function from
>>> 
>>> http://velveeta.che.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/octave/scripts/pk
>>> g/
>>> pkg.m?rev=1.21;content-type=text%2Fplain
>>> 
>>> and use it instead to see if it helps? You'll also need
>>> 
>>> http://velveeta.che.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/octave/scripts/mi
>>> sc
>>> ellaneous/compare_versions.m?rev=1.1;content-type=text%2Fplain
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> David
>> 
>> David,
>> 
>> Some progress. I got the CVS files that you suggested, and placed them in
>> the folder with the tar.gz.
>> 
>> When I tried the run, I got:
>> 
>> octave:1> ls
>> compare_versions.m      image-1.0.0.tar.gz      pkg.m
>> octave:2> pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>> tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
>> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
>> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
>> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>> octave:2> which tar
>> tar is the user-defined function from the file
>> /usr/local/share/octave/2.9.9/m/miscellaneous/tar.m
>> octave:3> exit
>> 
>> Then I tried:
>> 
>> jakoski$ tar -xvzf image-1.0.0.tar.gz -C ~/octave/
>> 
>> and the .tar.gz unpacked correctly into /octave in my home directory, but,
>> obviously, did not run Makefile to build the .oct files.
>> 
>> Should I be poking around in tar.m looking for the reason? Do I need the CVS
>> tar.m?
>> 
>> Joe
>> 
> 
> 
> It should be in untar.m rather than tar.m. However I don't see anything
> there that should be the cause of the issue. Perhaps you need the
> absolute path to tar. Could you try
> 
> pkg install <path_to_pkg>/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
> 
> and see if it helps... I'm at a loss to explain why you are seeing the
> problem like this..
> 
> Regards
> David

David,

First, I tried placing quotes around the package name without success, then
I tried the full path to the package.

octave:1> pkg install "image-1.0.0.tar.gz"
tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
error: tar: tar exited with status =
octave:1> pkg install
/Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: Read 7212 bytes from
/Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
error: tar: tar exited with status =
octave:1> 

The second try is interesting. It tried to open something, at least.

I then tried

untar("/Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz",
"/Users/jakoski/octave");

and I got the same errors as with pkg and the full path. Therefore the
problem is definitely within untar.m.

Finally, to see if it is a syntax problem, I tried

octave:1> pkg("install","image-1.0.0.tar.gz");
tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
error: tar: tar exited with status =
octave:1> 

Which is at least consistent.

Next?

Joe