RE: Suggestion: OpenOffice + Octave

[John W. Eaton]

It sounds to me like you are looking for a free lunch.

If you want Octave to do something that it doesn't already do for you,
then you have a few options.

One is to work on the enhancements yourself, then contribute them to
the community of Octave users and developers.  This way, you are
giving back something to the project that is already giving something
to you (I like to think of this as the golden rule of free software).

Another way, which might be easier for you if you lack either the
skills or the time to implement your ideas, is to provide funding for
others to do the work.  In this way, you are also contributing to the
community of users and developers.

Another is to do what you are doing now, which is to simply ask that
others implement your ideas for you, presumably for free.  Sometimes
this works, usually when the task is small, or the people who can do
the work are motivated to do it, often because it is solves a problem
that they also have, or simply because it is fun.  But if your plans
are complex and would require a lot of work, then you may have to wait
a long time for someone to come along and do the work for you.

Sorry if I've misrepresented your intent.  If you would like to
provide help in either of the first two ways I've suggested above,
then please let me know and maybe we can discuss how to make something
happen.

jwe



On  7-Sep-2003, Mike <address@hidden> wrote:

| Dirk,
| 
| 1) I need something my engineering profs can use.
| 2) I need something my old bosses can use.
| 
| The OS has to, for now, be windows as well as *nix.
| It has to run well on windows.
| They do heavy-duty cad with AutoCAD and Solidworks.
| They use cosmos, photoshop... and others.
| Their primary box is win-tel.
| That nukes gnome-exclusive software.
| 
| If its 1)free, 2)spreadsheet, and 3)octave then I can support that my old
| bosses will use it.
| If its something they use/love and is growing in engineering circles then I
| can submit to the MCCD that they use it.
| (FTSE ~200,000 all windows)
| If next-generation engineers are being taught on your spreadsheet-Octave
| instead of
| on Excel and Matlab, then its a long-term victory for open-source.
| 
| You will have made a better tool than is available and a better tool than
| MS can make, because its generalist development has put it into a
| compatibility box.
| 
| Personally I intend to explore the gnumeric sheet with the python bindings.
| After I learn some more about using python bindings.
| 
| -mike
| 
| -----Original Message-----
| From: Dirk Eddelbuettel [mailto:address@hidden
| Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 8:05 PM
| To: Mike
| Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden
| Subject: Re: Suggestion: OpenOffice + Octave
| 
| 
| 
| I think you would get a lot of what you seem to be looking look for in the
| Gnumeric spreadsheet via its Python bindings, and the extensions available
| to Python (such as Scientific / Numeric Python and all that).
| 
| Hth, Dirk
| 
| --
| Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
|                                                 -- Groucho Marx