octave @6.1.0 : font selection in qt4 variant is not working properly

[kencu (Ken)]

octave @6.1.0 has a new font defaulting mechanism that is qt 5.2+ only, committed here:

<​https://github.com/gnu-octave/octave/commit/fbaee01b2c64ee952412e11b53b047f1f1351724>

To make octave build and run using qt4, I came up with a fallback implementation for qt4 based on the previous, here:

<​https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/3b14745f335dcc98074eb79cd98f278f36a2eb39/math/octave/files/patch-octave6-qt4-fixes.diff#L39>.

but it is not working quite right. When octave 6.1 is installed with the qt4 variant, the system font is not picked up correctly. Usually, for me, the octave system default is coming in as Spanish, but just for fun, some of the buttons seem to be in Katagana. :>

Opening the Octave preferences pane in qt4 (once you figure out which one it is, in the foreign language) gets you to a dialog where you can specifically set the language you want, instead of the system default, and then it works fine.

Obviously my fallback is not working as hoped. There is some information ​here on how this is supposed to be set up, and qt's info is ​here.

[kencu (Ken)]

BTW -- upstream has indicated they are not accepting bugs against the qt4 variant any longer, as it is to be removed in octave 7.