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annotate README.devel @ 12386:c1ea9b90a272 release-3-4-x

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Added tag ss-3-3-92 for changeset c468c5b902b3
author John W. Eaton <jwe@octave.org>
date Sun, 06 Feb 2011 07:30:27 -0500
parents a31286562034
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1 This directory contains development releases of Octave.
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2
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3 If you want a stable, well-tested version of Octave, you should be
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4 looking at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/octave.
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5
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6 Development releases are provided for people who want to help test,
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7 debug, and improve Octave. Very little testing is done before making
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8 the development releases and they may even be made when Octave is in
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9 an inconsistent state. It is possible that you will encounter a
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10 very obvious bug, such as a failure to compile on *any* machine. It is
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11 likely that such bugs will be fixed by the next development release,
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12 so it really isn't necessary to report them unless they persist over
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13 more than one release.
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14
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15 Please DO report other bugs in the development releases as soon as you
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16 find them. Bugs should be reported to the bug tracker at
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17 'http://bugs.octave.org'. Please read read the bug reporting
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18 guidelines (http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/bugs.html) before
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19 submitting an item.
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21 If you have a fix for a bug, or an enhancement to submit, send your
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22 patch to maintainers@octave.org or submit it to the patch
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23 tracker at 'http://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?group=octave'.
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24
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25 By adhering to the following guidelines you can minimize the work that
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26 Octave maintainers need to do to apply your patch. Maintaining Octave
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27 is a lot of work in the best of circumstances, and we can't keep up
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28 unless you do your best to help.
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29
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30 * Send an explanation with your changes of what problem they fix or
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31 what improvement they bring about. For a bug fix, just include a
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32 copy of the bug report, and explain why the change fixes the bug.
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33
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34 * Always include a proper bug report for the problem you think you
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35 have fixed. We need to convince ourselves that the change is
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36 right before installing it. Even if it is right, we might have
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37 trouble judging it if we don't have a way to reproduce the problem.
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38
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39 * Include all the comments that are appropriate to help people
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40 reading the source in the future understand why this change was
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41 needed.
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42
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43 * Don't mix together changes made for different reasons. Send them
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44 _individually_.
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45
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46 If you make two changes for separate reasons, then we might not
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47 want to install them both. We might want to install just one.
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49 * Use `diff -c' to make your diffs. Diffs without context are hard
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50 for us to install reliably. More than that, they make it hard for
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51 us to study the diffs to decide whether we want to install them.
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52 Unified diff format is better than contextless diffs, but not as
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53 easy to read as `-c' format.
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54
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55 If you have GNU diff, use `diff -cp', which shows the name of the
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56 function that each change occurs in.
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57
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58 * Write the change log entries for your changes.
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60 Read the `ChangeLog' file to see what sorts of information to put
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61 in, and to learn the style that we use. The purpose of the
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62 change log is to show people where to find what was changed. So
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63 you need to be specific about what functions you changed; in
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64 large functions, it's often helpful to indicate where within the
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65 function the change was made.
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66
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67 On the other hand, once you have shown people where to find the
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68 change, you need not explain its purpose. Thus, if you add a new
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69 function, all you need to say about it is that it is new. If you
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70 feel that the purpose needs explaining, it probably does--but the
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71 explanation will be much more useful if you put it in comments in
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72 the code.
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74 If you would like your name to appear in the header line for who
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75 made the change, send us the header line.
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77 If you would like to be on the very sharpest part of the bleeding
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78 edge, you can now use Mercurial to access Octave's current development
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79 sources. Instructions for checking out a copy are available on the
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80 web at http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/download.html.
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82 Last updated: Sat Jan 22 21:26:18 PST 2011