Octaviz segfaults

[Jonathan Stickel]

On 5/5/08 octave-maintainers-request at octave.org wrote:
> Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 14:00:03 -0500
> From: " Jordi Guti?rrez Hermoso " <jordigh at gmail.com>
> Subject: Octaviz segfaults
> To: "Octave Maintainers List" <octave-maintainers at octave.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<9543b3a40805051200y2e1723e5w1b0a3e346afd315 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Octaviz segfaults on the attached sample script and data.
> 
> I'd simplify the test case, but I've honestly have been unable to
> figure out what's so particular about this data to make it segfault.
> I've tried other similar approaches without getting a segfault.
> 
> Also attached you will find a stack trace.
> 
> Now, I know that Octaviz isn't really part of Octave proper, but I
> really have no idea where else to ask for help. Dragan Tubic, the
> former lead developer of Octaviz, has abandoned Octaviz.  :-(  It's also
> hard to tell, as you can see from the tangled web of a stack trace, to
> know if the segfault is Octave's, Octaviz's or VTK's fault. I'm
> leaning towards Octaviz, as a segfault in the other two would probably
> be noticed by members of their respective communities.
> 
> I'm not asking for a complete solution... I'm happy to dig through the
> code myself and see what's wrong, and in fact, I've already tried. I
> am just asking for a little bit of help. My current guess is that
> Octaviz is somehow not keeping a proper reference count (#21 in the
> stack trace below looks like a likely candidate to look for problems).
> 
> Maybe I'm also asking if it's worthwhile rescuing Octaviz. I do think
> that VTK produces some of the prettiest graphics all around, but so
> much effort is now spent on other graphics backends for Octave, that
> perhaps it's ok to let Octaviz die.
> 
> Thanks,
> - Jordi G. H.

Jordi

Octaviz isn't dead!  It just never reached a critical level of interest 
where development is consistently ongoing.  Why do you think Dragan has 
abandoned the project?  I know that he is rarely involved now, but he 
usually responds if prompted.  Anyway, there are a couple of us who 
still try to keep Octaviz working, although there has not been any 
recent development of new features and functions.  You can ask about 
Octaviz specific issues on the Octaviz forum or mailing list (from the 
sourceforge project page).  I should probably update the web page 
pointing to those.

About your specific problem, I do not get a segfault on my system (Mac 
OS X 10.4, octave-3.0.0, octaviz-0.4.7).  I can send you the two 
resulting png files offlist if you like.  Does Octaviz work for you 
otherwise?  For example, does vtk_sombsurf work?

Jonathan