Bug in quiver

[John W. Eaton]

On 16-Jan-2009, Steven Verstoep wrote:

| I think in general that opensource can't compete with commercial  
| products.

Octave is not about "opensource".  It is about software freedom.

| You are right. i will be paying that $100 for a matlab license. My  
| time is worth more.

So you would be funding the further development of Matlab but not
Octave, yet still expecting Octave to be perfect?  How do you expect
that to happen?

Oh, and if you are only paying $100, I guess you are a student user?

| A bug in software will affect every user.

I guess it depends on the bug.  Apparently no one else noticed this
one yet.

| For any product it holds that user satisfaction is the prime aspect  

Your mistake is thinking that Octave is a "product", apparently
developed by others for your benefit.  Octave is a community project,
primarily created for the benefit of the people who choose to work
on it.

| How old is octave by now? And it still can't draw a vector field?

Yeah, it really sucks!  But you know, this is just one feature of one
function that you found that didn't work correctly.  And I think the
fix is fairly simple.

| If you know that matrix dimensions are awkwardly defined in Matlab/ 
| Octave. You test it!

I don't find matrix dimensions to be awkardly defined in Octave and
Matlab, nor do most of the users of Octave and Matlab.  So I'd guess
this misunderstanding is your problem.

| You should be glad that there are users like me that take the time to  
| in great detail report a bug and give advice.

I am grateful for all the contributors to Octave.  But there is no
need for you to report bugs in a condescending manner.  Do you think
that messages such as yours are motivating to people?

| As said; I already solved my problem. I just don't want other users to  
| go trough what I've been through. But maybe I should just shut up next  
| time, or tell them to buy Matlab?

There is also another alternative.  You could report the problem in a
more pleasant way, and not act so shocked that occasionally there are
bugs.  By and large, the people working on Octave are not idiots, as
your messages seemed to imply.

jwe