Short projects
- This is a collection of small projects to start contributing to Octave. Projects of long duration are listed in the Projects page.
Review and fix existing bugs
- Review bugs that catch your interest on the Octave bug tracker on GNU Savannah.
- A modern interface to the Octave bug tracker is given by SavannahAPI.
- Discuss with the developers there how to fix that bug or upload a patch there.
- Some bugs have already patches attached.
- Help testing those patches.
- Help updating outdated patches to the latest development version (this requires some Mercurial knowledge).
Implement missing Matlab functions
Use the Savannah patch tracker for submissions unrelated to an existing bug.
Write Built-In Self Tests (BISTs)
Writing BISTs improves Octave's regression testing and ensures that we don't break anything when we add new features.
- BIST for C++ functions
- BIST for m-files. See also Projects#Tests.
Work on Octave packages
- Take a look at https://gnu-octave.github.io/packages/ if you would like to work on some package there.
Easy Closes
Below is a non exhaustive list of bugs which should be looked at and appear to be easy Status stopped at 55938 (AKA 700-750) Notes:
- From this range ~5% could be closed
- The last full scrub came from hardy for v4.2
- Suspect many java bugs could be closed.
- Appears plotting bugs have been fixed, but not have been reviewed for 5 years.
bug | bug title | status |
---|---|---|
#36954 | datenum / datevec convert date-time string incorrectly during hour lost to DST | siko1056 suggests closing as won't fix. philipnienhuis changed to Postponed and expresses interest in revisiting. |
#40357 | OOM when converting from sparse double to sparse logical | hardy thinks this might be a DUPLICATE, nrjank changed to Need Info, needs better test to determine if the OOM comes from known sparse indexing issue or something else. |
#43717 | rats LEN Matlab incompatibility | riks states wouldn't bother to fix this as Octave's solution seems better, but points out that default length has changed and Octave should perhaps follow that change. |
#45404 | Breakpoints cannot be set in classdef methods or +package function files | package part fixed. classdef part remains. jwe suggest closing either this or #46451 and tracking classdef on the one that remains, or close both and make a new report. changed to Need Info for someone familiar to decide what would be best for tracking the issue after 2 yrs of dormancy. |
#48088 | document that issquare, iscolumn, isempty, etc operate on cell arrays | documentation patch candidate submitted and needs review. |
#49091 | MinGW std::acosh less accurate than Linux versions | rik5 states This and #48312 were supposed to be closed at the same time. mmuetzel notes that these tests are still failing on windows and should remain open. |
#49360 | odeset lacks documentation for solver options | Needs someone to review and make a to-do list. |
#51560 | [octave forge] (communications) Wrong dimension in pskmod.m output | nrjank had a solution for the bug (not attached), but stopped for more improvements. |
#53670 | subplot handle changes after window resizing | nrjank suggests this was fixed in fixed between 6.1 and 6.3 |
#54437 | optimset missing documentation for 5 options | rik states AutoScaling, ComplexEqn, and Updating can be copied from fsolve.m so this would be an improvement. |
#54679 | datenum accepts a matrix, which is undocumented | apjanke provided a patch. patch updated to current default tip and nrjank suggests ready to push. |
#55065 | Implement uiopen and uisave | rik states they would be easy to implement |
#58530 | missing functions: xline() and yline() | rik states I can dust them off and add them to Octave - updated unimplemented_functions list but has postponed attention until after v7.1. |
The equivalent suggestions for patches.
patch | patch title | status |
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A list of patch reports with attachments not marked "Done or Cancelled" can be viewed in the SavannaAPI, sorted by oldest first or sorted by "longest since last comment" first. While some of these older submissions may still be viable and just need a patch refresh to the current code base, many will have become out of date or rendered inapplicable due to code or function changes, and could be closed as 'Wont Fix'.