Package: wnpp Severity: wishlist Owner: Charles Plessy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Package name : libmath-random-perl Version : 0.71 Upstream Author : John Venier and Barry W. Brown URL : http://search.cpan.org/dist/Math-Random/ License : same conditions as Perl, plus some public domain, plus some BAD NEWS. Programming Lang: Perl Description : random number generators Math::Random is a Perl port of the C version of randlib, which is a suite of routines for generating random deviates. See "RANDLIB" for more information. . This port supports all of the distributions from which the Fortran and C versions generate deviates. The major functionalities that are excluded are the multiple generators/splitting facility and antithetic random number generation. These facilities, along with some of the distributions which are included, are probably not of interest except to the very sophisticated user. If there is sufficient interest, the excluded facilities will be included in a future release. The code to perform the excluded facilities is available as randlib in Fortran and C source. I am interested in libmath-random-perl because it is a dependancy of the new upstream release of BioPerl. A preliminary package is almost ready. However, quoting from README: THE BAD NEWS. We adapted or modified many routines published in the ACM's Transactions on Mathematical Software. The ACM has copyright on these routines (see the ACM statement on software policy in the POD/man page). Commercial incorporation of these routines into products to be sold requires permission and perhaps payment to the ACM. But if you don't plan to sell them, enjoy. (Note, however, that algorithms per se cannot be copyrighted; see 17 USC 102(b).) libmath-random-perl is therefore non-free. Is the Debian Perl team interested in hosting this package ? If not, we will host it in Debian Med. Have a nice day, -- Charles Plessy Debian Med packaging team Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
