[sldev] Debian preliminary packages

[Paul TBBle Hampson]

On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 12:02:32AM -0700, Soft Noel wrote:
> On 5/30/07, Paul TBBle Hampson <Paul.Hampson at pobox.com> wrote:
> >On Mon, May 07, 2007 at 07:24:58PM +1000, Paul TBBle Hampson wrote:
> >> On Mon, May 07, 2007 at 09:48:27AM +1000, Paul TBBle Hampson wrote:
> >>> I've just posted the preliminary Debian packaging of
> >>> slviewer, to http://www.tbble.net/debian/

> >>> However, they don't actually work just now, due to both the
> >>> missing res-sdl and character directories in the 1.15.0.2
> >>> release tarball, and an error I get when I try to connect,
> >>> "Ran off end of packet ObjectUpdate from 64.154.220.9:13004".

> >> OK, fixed the packages, so they aren't missing files. ObjectUpdate
> >> packet underrun still happens on agni though. -_-

> >Just flicking back through the SLTraffic, and noticed that there might
> >have been some expectation of binary uploads of these packages from
> >me for arches other than PowerPC.

> >I've not got any other system capable of building them for upload
> >(or in fact, any other systems at the moment. -_-)

> >The plan is to actually get these into Debian proper, so that
> >the Debian buildd network will actually build the other arches
> >for me. ^_^

> In the past, Debian has not been good about accepting software that
> needs to change often. Even software like SpamAssassin that's usable,
> but which goes stale quickly, was met with resistance in the past.

As of Etch's release, debian-volatile [1] has become an officially
supported project, where things that target fast-moving targers, such
as spamassassin, can be updated during the life of a stable release.

I expect slviewer'd go there somewhere.

If debian-volatile does not wish to take slviewer under its wing, them
backports.org would prolly be accepting of a stable backport of
slviewer.

By "resistance" you mean "Debian would not change its stable-update
policy to accomodate things like Spamassassin", I take it. Not "Debian
refused to allow things like Spamassassin into Debian", which would
surprise me, having used Spamassassin on Debian for over two full stable
release cycles.

[1] http://www.debian.org/volatile/

> Given that the viewer would only remain usable for a tiny fragment of
> the typical Debian release cycle, would it make more sense to look at
> something like the pine-tracker package, which merely makes note of
> changes to the authoritative package elsewhere, or even the Sun
> JavaSDK packages which centrally install and track the contents of
> tarballs the user downloads to an appropriate directory?

Pine isn't in Debian because it's license is not DFSG free. In fact,
a glance suggets it's unredistributable for Debian in binary form, which
is why the pine-tracker package in non-free actually includes the entire
source, but does not build it for Debian archive uploads.

I think you're thinking of java-package, which was used to make .deb
packages of Java SDKs and JREs from the un-redistributable upstream
tarballs.

Sun's JDK and JRE is now redistributable, and appears fully in
non-free, without alternative downloads needed. Other JDKs that
are not redistributable (such as the IBM JDK and JRE) still require
the use of a package such as java-package.

Thankyou for the opportunity to correct these misconceptions about
Debian. ^_^

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------
Paul "TBBle" Hampson, B.Sc, LPI, MCSE
On-hiatus Asian Studies student, ANU
The Boss, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd (ABN: 51 095 284 361)
Paul.Hampson at Pobox.com

Of course Pacman didn't influence us as kids. If it did,
we'd be running around in darkened rooms, popping pills and
listening to repetitive music.
 -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.1/au/
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