Re: Objects: contributing the dynamicprops and hgsetget classes

[Andrew Janke]

On 10/30/19 10:06 AM, FARHI Emmanuel wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've written two superclasses for Octave, that emulate the
> 
>   * *dynamicprops* (add new properties to classes)
>   * *hgsetget* (allow to use set/get on classes)
> 
> as found in Matlab. My classes are not made Abstract, but this could be
> done, to avoid direct instantiation.
> 
> The repositories are on Github:
> 
>   * https://github.com/farhi/octave-dynamicprops
>   * https://github.com/farhi/octave-hgsetget
> 
> I'd be happy to see them in Octave, to improve the compatibility on
> class definitions. The /hgsetget/ has been renamed as the
> /matlab.mixin.SetGet/ class since Matlab 2013, but the /hgsetget/ name
> is still supported to date.
> 
> Thanks, Emmanuel.

Hi Emmanuel,

These are just my thoughts as an Octave contributor; if any of the core
maintainers have thoughts too, you should probably defer to them.

IMHO, the best way to get Octave code used by other users and then
considered for core Octave is to make it available as a `pkg`
distribution and then get in to Octave Forge. That makes it easy for
users to find and install, and easy for other developers to test and
build against.

If I were you, I'd reformat your packages so they could be installed
with the `pkg install <url>` command, which would get you a better user
base potential, and then advertise them on the octave-help mailing list.
(Plus then, other packages could declare dependencies on yours, and
you'd make your way into the dependency web.) After that, if you get
some users, apply to Octave Forge to make it an "external"/community
package, and after that see about donating them to core Octave itself.

Unfortunately, I can't find a good document on "how to make a good
Octave pkg-conformant package". That's a bummer. Can any of the core
Octave developers help us out here? Seems like this is a document that
ought to exist.

Cheers,
Andrew