[aur-general] TU application for Thomas Dziedzic

[Xyne]

Stefan Husmann wrote:

> well, sage-mathematics is not a package, it is a distribution (btw, do you
> know scilab?). Some years ago I asked on this list if it should go to
> community, and the short discussion ended in the conclusion, that it
> should not. But I am fine with disussing it again.

I installed Sage once from the AUR back when it was compiled in the
install script (which is also what led to my 32 MB Pacman log). This
seemed very hackish to me and I would expect that was a factor in its
exclusion from [community]. Looking at the current PKGBUILD, it seems
that upstream has finally cleaned up their build scripts to the point
that Sage can be packaged properly.

Considering this along with the relative popularity of Sage (both the
AUR package and the application in general), it would probably be worth
reconsidering its inclusion in [community].

Incidentally, I remember that when I compiled it the package duplicated
several other packages, e.g. maxima, because it includes other
applications internally. Is there any way (yet) to make it use other
packages instead? If not, does it fully provide any other packages?




As for Thomas' application, I have no objections or concerns at the
moment. I've noticed him on the forum and I also use some of his
packages in the AUR (although I hadn't realized that the accounts
belonged to the same person). His packaging skills seem good to me and
he's responsive to user feedback. Coupled with the general attitude
that I've seen in his posts I think he would make a great addition to
the team.

As for the questions raised by others of what he specifically hopes to
do as a TU, I think a focus on scientific apps is a good cause. Science
apps form an important niche and having TUs who can properly maintain
science packages will benefit all users with an interest in science.*


/Xyne



* The idea of an "arch-science" team comes to mind, similar to the
  "arch-haskell" team, which has done great work in making Arch useful
  for Haskell users, but I don't actually have any concrete ideas of
  what that would entail.