From: "Tim O'Keefe" <timo@brown.edu>
Path: news.mathworks.com!newsfeed-00.mathworks.com!webcrossing
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: Matlab 7.4 OSX
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Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 08:37:30 -0400
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If it was easy, and an attractive solution for MathWorks (to port
everything as X11 to the Mac), that's the way it would be. But for
*whatever* reason (and they have explained why), they don't want to.

To quote Brian (from earlier):

"We could be giving customers a significantly better native Mac
experience if we supported MATLAB UIs more natively, and we could be
taking advantage of Apple innovations as well. To work towards both a
native Mac experience and an X11 experience would require us to split
our very limited Mac resources, and further delay our progress."

In response to this, I say, the sprinkling of X11 in the OSX build is
not worth (in my opinion) the absence of certain functionality and
toolboxes that are found in Windows and Linux Matlab e.g., DAT
Toolbox, Instrument Control Toolbox, etc. These aren't just minor
hobblings either; this is simply an incomplete distribution.

... and of course, with Vine Server/Viewer and new Leopard features,
there are alternatives to X11. They may not be pretty, but they're
out there. And Windows users are still alive.

Jeffrey Erlich wrote:
>
>
> Tim,
>
> Let's assume (safely) that Mathworks is going to continue to
> develop
> the linux matlab with full X11 support.
>
> The question then becomes, how much extra work is it to port (and
> support) an X11 version for mac? My naive expectation, is that it
> isn't that hard. Many free X11 software projects compile on macs
> with no problem. Why can't Matlab do the same?
>
> -Jeff
>
> Tim O'Keefe wrote:
>>
>>
>> Honestly, I know certain people will jump on me for saying
this,
>> but,
>> if you think Matlab can be *that much better* by abandoning X11
>> support, then so be it.
>>
>> Personally, I think dividing your efforts so that you can
> maintain
>> this hybrid native/X11 OSX Matlab is not worth it. You could
use
>> the
>> extra time to develop other things..... like a DAT Toolbox
>:(
>>
>> If you REALLY REALLY REALLY need remote X11 graphics, just go
> with
>> Linux; or invoke Matlab remotely from a Linux machine
somewhere.
>> Will
>> Matlab install on Linux running on a PowerPC or Intel Mac?
>>
>> -T