Re: [Pkg-octave-devel] Octave 3.0 or 3.2 in wheezy

[Thomas Weber <tweber@debian.org>]

Hi Alberto, 
On Tue, Jan 08, 2013 at 03:27:38PM +0000, Alberto Hamilton wrote:
> Hello,
> 
>   I've used Octave for years, specially control toolbox. But, as you
> know, Octave 3.6 has a control toolbox that is not compatible with
> previous releases (3.0 or 3.2). 
> 
>  I've undated my system to wheezy but I found that octave3.0 and
> octave3.2 has disappeared from wheezy. 
> 
>  Are you planning to put octave3.0 or octave3.2 in Wheezy?

You already received two negative replies, but I think your question
actually deserves a longer answer - even just to be able to point at it
for future reference. 

The inclusion of two Octave versions in Debian steemed from the fact
that the then "stable" version of Octave moved at a snails pace and people
wanted all the features of the "testing" version (where the terms
"stable" and "testing" refer to Octave terminology, not the Debian
releases).  
Development in Octave has changed a lot, so there is not much sense in
keeping several versions in Debian. I actually think that the biggest
achievement for Wheezy is the fact that we have got rid of the version
number in the packages and just have one version in the archive.

There is also a longterm problem with keeping old versions: how long do
you want to keep them? Nobody is working on Octave 3.2 anymore, let
alone 3.0. Nobody cares about the old control package, either.
So, at some point you *must* adapt your code to the changed control
package. Just do it now and you can benefit from the improvements in
both Octave and the control package.

	Thomas