Re: Creating a new toolbox

[Kai Torben Ohlhus]

On 9/24/20 7:47 PM, octave_aerospace wrote:
> On Sunday, September 20, 2020 2:12 PM, Kai Torben Ohlhus <k.ohlhus@gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>> On 9/20/20 6:50 PM, octave_aerospace via Octave-maintainers wrote:
>>> On Saturday, 19 September 2020 17:48, Andreas Weber octave@josoansi.de 
>>> wrote:
>>>> Am 19.09.20 um 15:50 schrieb octave_aerospace via Octave-maintainers:
>>>>
>>>>> We have downloaded the example package,
>>>>
>>>> This one?https://github.com/gnu-octave/pkg-example
>>>> I think this is the most up to date example (Thanks to Kai).
>>>> Do you plan to make it a community or external repo?
>>>> Is there something equivalent in MATLAB?
>>>> -- Andy
>>>
>>> Hello Andreas,
>>> The package you linked looks newer than the one
>>> from https://octave.sourceforge.io/pkg-repository/example-package/
>>> So we will work with this one thank you.
>>> Yes, matlab has an aerospace toolbox.
>>> Do you plan to make it a community or external repo?
>>> We were thinking of a community one.
>>> Hello Robert,
>>> Perfect this will be a great help.
>>> Thank you
>>
>> Thank you for your contribution of the aerospace toolbox.
>>
>> Just some clarification: The new example package [3] is part of a new
>> Octave package index [4], a superset of Octave Forge (OF) [2] (all OF
>> packages and more are contained), easier to handle for package
>> maintainers and less restrictive, but not yet officially published on
>> the Octave website (comes soon).
>>
>> If you want to explicitly make the aerospace toolbox an OF community
>> package [2], you can of course use the new example package [3], but you
>> have to roughly consider three more restrictions to your development,
>> which will not be necessary in the new Octave package index [4]:
>>
>> 1.  All your code must be in Octave syntax, "endif" instead of "end" for
>>     example.
>>
>> 2.  You must host a repository (mirror) at SourceForge.
>> 3.  You must include and use a "magic" 😇 maintainers Makefile [1] in
>>     your package repository to create release tarballs manually.
>>
>>     OF is only one way of publishing a package. The Octave package manager
>>     does in general not depend on OF. Since Octave 4.4 you install packages
>>     from arbitrary locations (see end of the README file [3]).
>>
>>     Kai
>>
>
> 
> Hello Kai,
>
> We think there is some confusion. We have not created the toolbox yet.
> We were following what the guidelines stated on the website, and sent
> an email to the maintainers first.
>
>
> We have no issue with using an endif.
> We have no issue of having a Makefile, we want the install process to
> be easy for the users.
>
> Is there any reason to use Sourceforge instead of GNU Savannah?


Please do not forget to keep the maintainers list in the CC.  This way
others can answer faster or give better answers than me =)

Sure, so far you greatly followed the given guidelines.  To my
knowledge, it does not really matter where you develop the toolbox in
first place.  I suggest to use the platform that most appeals to you.

The install process is always as easy/difficult as typing

   pkg install https://www.yourtoolbox.org/toolbox-1.0.0.tar.gz

or if you join Octave Forge [2]:

   pkg install -forge toolbox

The SourceForge hosting service is the desired location if you want to
join the "Octave Forge" community (as the name suggests).  At least I
don't know of any packages hosted at GNU Savannah directly.

> Is there any concern it could disappear like the concern for Github?

I do not understand this question.

Once you finished your toolbox and want to release it, I suggest you
come back to this mailing list or Discourse [5] then we can help you
getting the release done.

Kai


[1]
https://sourceforge.net/p/octave/example-package/ci/default/tree/plain-package/Makefile
[2] https://octave.sourceforge.io
[3] https://github.com/gnu-octave/pkg-example
[4] https://gnu-octave.github.io/pkg-index/
[5] https://octave.discourse.group/