Editing Online Developer Meeting (2022-03-22)

* Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2022 @ 18:00 UTC
* Location: https://meet.jit.si/octave-dev

== Todays topics ==

* Meet and greet 5 minutes before meeting (audio testing).

=== NumFOCUS ===

* https://octave.discourse.group/t/apply-for-numfocus-sponsoring/2328

=== Octave v8.0 ===

*Would it be worthwhile to look into Sergio Burgos' gui editor?
**https://gitlab.com/labinformatica/guieditor

=== Package problems ===

* How to deal with user frustration about unmaintained but highly demanded packages?
** The list below might be longer (thinking of the symbolic package for example...)
** Strategy for "forced releases" in cases: (a) working patch exists (b) patch applied but unreleased?

==== Communications ====

*<strike>bug {{bug|46521}} is still lingering with nir_krakauer and lostbard there has been significant progress.</strike>
**<strike>Should some energy be directed to closing this?</strike> Not related to Octave itself.  See [https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?46521#comment59 note in bug report].

==== Signal ====
*<strike>There has been tremendous work submitted by Charles Praplan, JWE, and others.</strike>
**<strike>However it appears none of this has been incorporated.</strike>
**<strike>After release of version 1.4.1; is this no longer being maintained?</strike>  Not related to Octave itself.  Please reach out for the [https://octave.sourceforge.io/signal/ package maintainer] about future plans.  If one is interested she might offer to become new package maintainer.

== Previous topics ==
:''The following items were not discussed.  Just some links to progress on those items are displayed.''

=== Release process of Octave 7.1 ===

* Blocking issues: 8 open bugs targeting 7.0.90, 3 marked as "ready for test" (see [https://octave.space/savannah/# Savannah overview on octave.space])
* Good progress on some of the blocking issues by jwe. Most important remaining ones:
** bug {{bug|61788}}: arrays of type int16 contain wrong numbers
*** The <code>:</code>-operator will probably be changed to return an array (instead of a range object) before Octave 7.
*** Image package had trouble with this change (bug {{bug|61815}}).  These changes should be reviewed with the next Octave 7 release candidate.
*** jwe summarized options for the release in comment #18 of the bug report.
*** jwe will revert most changes on "stable" (Octave 7) and continue developing on "default".
** bug {{bug|61813}}: memory management bug when calling MEX that returns an output
*** @jwe check in a fix that will also revert to copying data in the .mex interface (less efficient, but also the way it has always been done until now) unless Octave is compiled with C++17 pmr.
*** This also avoids the <code>malloc</code>-<code>operator delete[]</code> mismatch.
*** Confirmed fixed now.
** bug {{bug|61821}}: segfault using tree_parameter_list in oct file
*** Lower priority, only 32-bit (only on Windows?). Maybe a compiler bug?
*** Not a blocker.
** bug {{bug|61898}}: subsref: Error when field syntax is used on non-scalar @class object
*** Not a bug in Octave core. Recent changes to output argument validation uncovered an issue in interval package.
** Similar bug {{bug|61843}}: Regression with subscripted assignments with arrays of objects
*** Older regression.
** Use suffix for API string when it requires C++17 pmr?
*** Should indicate if Octave was compiled with C++17 support or not.
*** Need to recompile packages.
*** Agreed to avoid suffix.  Leave things as is.
** bug {{bug|61687}}: Ignore not updated translations.  Open new bug report for further translations.
** '''There will be soon a second release candidate.'''

=== Minimum Qt5 version for Octave 8? ===

* No real conclusion.  Wait for progress with Linux distributions.
* See [https://octave.discourse.group/t/qt5-15-already-unsupported-upstream-except-commercial-license/737/15 Qt5.15 already unsupported upstream (except commercial license)?]

=== libinterp ===

* suggestion to prefer <code>std::copy_n</code> instead of for-loop to duplicate data
** try to avoid making too many copies anyways!
* rik updated about the progress on bug {{bug|61753}} (https://octave.discourse.group/t/project-to-review-and-replace-c-assert-with-error-calls/2043)
** jwe suggest to use [https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/exceptions proper C++ exceptions] in some future release of Octave, instead of error function pointers.

=== dynamic loader (oct-files) ===

* jwe worked on refactoring dynamic code loading with <code>std::shared_ptr</code>, also for reference counting.
* Not clear if there is a portable "standard" way of loading code dynamically (oct-file).  Ideas are welcome.

== See also ==

* Next meeting: [[Online Developer Meeting (2022-04-26)]]
* Last meeting: [[Online Developer Meeting (2022-02-22)]]

[[Category:2022]]
[[Category:Meetings]]