[aur-general] TU application for Thomas Dziedzic

[stefan-husmann at t-online.de]

-----Original Message-----
> Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:31:25 +0200
> Subject: Re: [aur-general] TU application for Thomas Dziedzic
> From: Xyne <xyne at archlinux.ca>
> To: aur-general at archlinux.org

> 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.
> 
> 
Hello,

I am the former maintainer of the sage-mathematics package in AUR. At
the time I asked for inclusion in community it was not packaged in the
install file, but using a "regular" PKGBUILD. This method stopped
working later. The main reason for not including it was the mentioned
duplication of packages. I believe this issue would be difficult to
solve. The packages sage uses are mostly altered in a way to make them
integrate into the "distribution".  I do not know if there is a complete
list of changes they made, even a complete list of packages they
changed. 

I was sometimes thinkig about a arch-sage-distribution, that consists of
the arch core packages, sage as base system, and that takes care of not
installing packages that are included in sage from the arch repos.  I am
not sure if this is technically doable or advisable. One would have two
package managers, pacman and spkg.

Regards Stefan