[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #53124] [MXE Octave] install in path that includes spaces

[Philip Nienhuis]

Follow-up Comment #35, bug #53124 (project octave):

First off, I am not so much opposed to installing Octave by default in
"C:\Program Files".
But IMO it's going a bit fast. As the bug report title says, this bug is about
installing Octave in paths containing spaces; not per sé about installing
Octave in a particular directory that happens to have a space in its name.

It could be either an advantage or a disadvantage that users can't change
Octave internals anymore; I guess it'll turn out be a mixed bag. We'll have to
watch what happens once the first mxe-Octave installers are to be released
(for Octave-6.*).

One of my thinking "lines" is that a big benefit of Octave's OSS status is
that users can inspect and adapt the code, if possible easily. That's still
possible but requires a few more steps.
Perhaps the install screen could inform users that the now default install
location (C:\Program Files) has some implications.

IMO Matlab is not a good comparison. Its function files can't be changed as
they are all .p files (translated .m files) and the .m files that are left
only contain the help texts. The reason is undoubtedly that Matlab is
proprietary and TMW wants to hide its code, in contrast to Octave.

@JohnD:
Yes I've been entering my system's admin password to be able to install Octave
for many years now. It's just that this discussion brought back reminiscences
that there used to be an alternative. I'll have a look in the
makeinst_script.sh.in file, maybe that option can be resurrected?


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