Mercurial > web-octave
annotate pages/support-expectations.md @ 288:2e13395adcc0
Major design change, footer, texts.
| author | Kai T. Ohlhus <k.ohlhus@gmail.com> |
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| date | Sun, 29 May 2022 01:25:16 +0900 |
| parents | c8126c010d67 |
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| rev | line source |
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| 215 | 1 --- |
| 2 layout: page | |
| 3 title: Support Expectations | |
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Kai T. Ohlhus <k.ohlhus@gmail.com>
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4 icon: <i class="fas fa-book-medical"></i> |
| 215 | 5 permalink: support-expectations |
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| 7 | |
| 8 Octave is a capable free software system for numerical computing developed | |
| 9 primarily by a community of **volunteers**. | |
| 10 As good as Octave is, | |
| 11 there are certainly some flaws and a lot of room for improvement. | |
| 12 Most people who use Octave understand these things | |
| 13 and know that if they work together with the community bugs will be fixed, | |
| 14 features will be added, | |
| 15 and Octave will improve over time. | |
| 16 Working with people who have this kind of attitude is fun and rewarding. | |
| 17 | |
| 18 Unfortunately, | |
| 19 there are a few people who behave as though the community owes them support as | |
| 20 well as a 100% Matlab compatible system, | |
| 21 all at zero cost. | |
| 22 **Working with these people is no fun.** | |
| 23 If you approach the Octave community this way, | |
| 24 you are sure to be disappointed. | |
| 25 You should also not be surprised when your requests for help are ignored. | |
| 26 | |
| 27 | |
| 28 ### Development Group | |
| 29 | |
| 30 People sometimes think that Octave is developed by some large team of well-paid | |
| 31 programmers. | |
| 32 Nothing could be further from the truth. | |
| 33 Most of the initial development of Octave was done by one person over several | |
| 34 years. | |
| 35 Since then, | |
| 36 there have been at most a half-dozen or so volunteers working on Octave | |
| 37 at any one time. | |
| 38 You can see who has done most of the work by looking through the | |
| 39 [development history](https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave) | |
| 40 (prior to February 2008 it is best to look in the old `ChangeLog` files). | |
| 41 Currently, | |
| 42 none of the Octave developers are paid to work on Octave directly. | |
| 43 | |
| 44 If you would like to see Octave moving forward more quickly, | |
| 45 then contribute to its development, | |
| 46 either by working on the project yourself, | |
| 47 or by [donating funds]({{ "donation.html" | relative_url }}). | |
| 48 With sufficient funding, | |
| 49 the Octave project would be able to pay a few developers to work on it full | |
| 50 time. | |
| 51 | |
| 52 | |
| 53 ### Help | |
| 54 | |
| 55 When asking for help on Discourse or IRC channel, | |
| 56 or reporting a bug, | |
| 57 remember that the people helping you are Octave users just like you | |
| 58 who are volunteering their time. | |
| 59 They are not paid support staff. | |
| 60 Use meaningful subject lines. | |
| 61 Try to ask clear questions. | |
| 62 Be precise about the problems you are having. | |
| 63 | |
| 64 | |
| 65 ### Bugs | |
| 66 | |
| 67 No software is perfect, | |
| 68 and Octave is no exception. | |
| 69 You can search the list of bug reports to see what problems have been reported. | |
| 70 In looking at the list, | |
| 71 you might also noticed the number of problems that have been *fixed*. | |
| 72 Nearly all of these problems have been fixed by volunteers. | |
| 73 If you find a problem, | |
| 74 you are encouraged to [report it]({{ "bugs.html" | relative_url }}). | |
| 75 Your report can help to improve Octave, | |
| 76 but you should not think of the bug tracker as your personal support line. | |
| 77 | |
| 78 If you depend on Octave and absolutely must have prompt responses to problem | |
| 79 reports, | |
| 80 you should consider paying for | |
| 81 [commercial support]({{ "commercial-support.html" | relative_url }}). | |
| 82 | |
| 83 | |
| 84 ### Features | |
| 85 | |
| 86 When we say that Octave is "mostly compatible" with Matlab, | |
| 87 we mean that the language that it accepts is similar enough that a substantial | |
| 88 amount of code written for Matlab can also run in Octave without needing to be | |
| 89 changed. | |
| 90 But Octave does not have all the features of Matlab, | |
| 91 and it is unlikely that it ever will. | |
| 92 Given that Matlab is developed in secret and Octave developers only find out | |
| 93 about new Matlab features when new versions of Matlab are released, | |
| 94 it is clearly impossible for Octave to have new Matlab features as soon as they | |
| 95 are available in Matlab. | |
| 96 | |
| 97 In most cases, | |
| 98 Octave has the features that it does because someone decided to add them | |
| 99 because they needed them. | |
| 100 If you have the programming skills perhaps you can add the features you need. | |
| 101 If you not, | |
| 102 then consider paying for someone to implement the feature for you. | |
| 103 Most people who provide | |
| 104 [commercial support]({{ "commercial-support.html" | relative_url }}) | |
| 105 services for Octave will also take on custom programming projects. | |
| 106 | |
| 107 Even if you don't have the expertise required to implement new features or | |
| 108 can't pay for someone to do the work for you, | |
| 109 you may submit feature requests to the bug tracker. | |
| 110 But you should understand that unless you are paying for someone to to add the | |
| 111 feature, | |
| 112 no one is obligated to do it for you. |