[Scilab-users] GUI start up stalls because of unreachable scilab.io (specified in newsfeed.xml)

[Hermitte Luc (CS SI)]

Hi,

I'm trying to install scilab on our cluster, but before fine tuning the compilation, I've tried the binaries you've packaged.

When I simply run `path/to/scilab`, I end up with:

1- java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out
2- eventually, **minutes later**, the GUI pops up

If I execute the cli version, I've no troubles.

With a strace -f, I see a 
   [pid 43009] 1496135543.190668 connect(64, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(80), sin_addr=inet_addr("213.186.33.16")}, 16 <unfinished ...>

Looks like a good culprit as I'm behind a firewall. It appears to be the IP address of scilab.io.
I've found an occurrence of it in newsfeed.xml, and indeed, this is the culprit.

It'll be nice to :
- print a more precise error message like: "Cannot connect to news.scilab.io, see the related documentation XXX"
- document the issue, how to fix it, the file syntax (for instance, I'd like to clear it, but a <newsfeed> entry is expected, and it cannot be empty)
- not stall for so long for something definitively not critical (from an end-user point of view)
- support proxies with authentication configured with $http(s)_proxy variables.


Regards,
-- 
Luc Hermitte