[OctDev] Question on performance, coding style and competitive software

[Søren Hauberg]

ons, 22 04 2009 kl. 00:31 +0200, skrev David Bateman:
> > 2) Coding style:
> > Octave understands a superset of commands compared to matlab, and it
> > seems the current policy is to enforce the "octave style" and make the
> > use of toolboxes incompatible for a use with Matlab. Is not it sensible
> > to write platform-neutral applications ? Specifically, is not it in our
> > own interest (wider usage make the code more robust) that matlab users
> > are not "forced" to buy additional toolboxes but can use open source
> > toolboxes e.g. from octave-forge?
> >   
> I'd personally consider that up to the toolboxes author. Using texinfo 
> in the help string makes the Octave help string "nicer"....  I however 
> don't think a policy should be made that toolboxes on octave-forge 
> should be matlab compatible..

I very much agree with David. This isn't something we should regulate in
Octave-Forge. If the developer(s) of a package wants to stay compatible
with Matlab, then that's fine, but if she wants to use Octave features
that aren't compatible with Matlab, then that's also fine. Whomever does
the coding should also get to make the decisions.

Søren