I am starting a new thread on this issue. Quoting from http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2005-12/msg00319.html :
>I often use octave and do no plotting at all. Octave starts and runs >fine if gnuplot isn't installed. (It complains about not being able >to find gnuplot when the plot command is used.) Should there really >be a dependency if only a subset of features requires a package? >I'd prefer to see gnuplot removed from the octave dependency list. >Of course then you'd have to deal with all the posts saying that >the plot command in octave is broken. So I don't know what the best >approach would be. How do others feel? >Tony Richardson As the OP notes, having a gnuplot dependency pulls in X when installing octave, which is not what some users need or want. And octave will load and run just fine without gnuplot - it just won't plot. However, most users want to plot, and will need gnuplot. So, my current view is that a gnuplot dependency is optimal for most users, and that those who don't want it can work around the issue by using known solutions, such as hacking the /etc/setup/installed.db file to fool setup into thinking gnuplot is installed. On the other side is how Debian does it: gnuplot is "suggested" for octave, not "required". Also, Debian has a gnuplot-nox package, which I suppose omits the gnuplot X11 drivers, and actually allows installing gnuplot without requiring X. I think that gnuplot-nox is kind of a neat solution, but even if such a package were available in cygwin, we don't have a way to express OR dependencies. So it would be difficult to use this approach. Also we don't have a way to express "suggested" rather than required. On balance, I favor retaining the current dependency on gnuplot. I would ask that those with alternative views post to this thread. Thanks, jrp -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
