Re: [Pkg-octave-devel] Packaging octplot

[Rafael Laboissiere <rafael@debian.org>]

I just gave a try to the package.  Here are my comments:

1) Short description in debian/control:  the term "handle graphics" in
   the short description is too specific for the general users (only people
   used to Matlab knows what it means).  It could be okay if, at least, it
   was explained in the long description but this is not the case.  Also,
   notice that the Developers Reference manual, section 6.2.2, recommends no
   article at the beginning of the short description.

2) Dependency on specific debconf setting for libfltk1.1-dev:  when
   installing this package, I answered "No" to the debconf question "Make .h
   links to <FL/*.H>?"  Building octplot failed then with the error message:
   
       figure.cpp:19:19: error: Fl/Fl.h: No such file or directory
   
   I think this is a serious problem, because the build daemons install
   packages using debconf defaults.
   
   I trivial way to fix the problem is by patching src/figure.cpp (consider
   using /usr/share/cdbs/1/rules/simple-patchsys.mk)
   
3) No-reentrancy: once the package has been build for the first time, it
   fails to build again yielding the following error message:
   
       chmod a+x /root/octplot/octplot-0.3.0/./configure
       chmod: cannot access `/root/octplot/octplot-0.3.0/./configure': No such file or directory

   This is totally reproducible here.  Is it the same for you?

Once this issues will have been addressed, I will produce an apt-getable
repository for the package and fill an ITP bug report against wnpp (similar
to what I did for sundials recently).

-- 
Rafael