Re: Is the 3.8 "release ” official?

[Carnë Draug]

On 30 December 2013 06:25, John W. Eaton <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 12/29/2013 04:57 PM, Carnë Draug wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Could someone comment on how official is the tarball for 3.8.0 on the
>> FTP server?
>
>
> Rik and I thought we had waited long enough, so put the sources on
> ftp.gnu.org.  Is that official enough?

Without the typical announcement, some more overcautious people could
think a security issue. Or a test. Or something else.

> I didn't announce it yet because binaries aren't available.  IIRC,
> Jordi has been saying that we should have binaries available before
> having a release.  But I didn't want to wait forever, so as a
> compromise, I put the sources on the ftp site.
>
> I don't think we have completely functional installers (including a
> selection of packages) for Windows or OS X yet.  If we are going to
> distribute "official" binaries, then who will be making them and from
> where will we distribute them?

Up to know, these have been distributed by Octave Forge but I have
nothing against doing it through the Octave Project. To note that some
users seem used to have Octave distributed with packages so how will
that be handled?

> Should we announce the release now or wait for binaries to be
> available?

That really depends when those binaries will be made available. If
it's just a matter of days then I'd say to wait. If it's a lot more
then no. May I have your attention please? May I have your attention
please? Will the real downstream packagers please stand up? I repeat.
Will the real downstream packagers please stand up?


On 30 December 2013 17:34, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Mon, 2013-12-30 at 10:45 -0500, Michael D. Godfrey wrote:
>
>> I agree. Announce it has been released.
>
> I thought a release announcement would be quite disappointing for most
> people since most people (yes, most) won't be able to install Octave,
> and this disappointment would be large enough to overshadow any other
> achievements that the new release has done.
>
> But you guys seem to think that I'm wrong, and that we should announce
> the release now. I thought we only had one chance to make a good first
> impression with the new release, but maybe we'll have another chance
> with 4.0.

You're right that it'd be much better to make the announcement with
links for installers but how long will we have to wait for that? Also,
won't most of the subcribers to mailing lists be users that are used
to the idea of having sources being distributed only, with binaries as
a separate thing? It would be new users, the ones that are not used to
it such as prospective new users getting the news from slashdot, that
will get disappointed but it's too late for that.

Again, if it's it's only a matter of days then I'd say to wait for the
announcement.

Carnë