> Building SAGE on Linux/ARM at all is likely a major project. SAGE is quite > large and probably nobody has every compiled some of the key components > on Linux/ARM before. Because many of those components are very tightly coded > C (and sometimes assembly) mathematics libraries, there could be nontrivial > problems. Even getting SAGE to run on Linux Itanium is pretty > challenging; last time > I tried, I ran into a major bug in Python, where any use of readline > immediately > crashed Python.
Debian packages don't have to be available on all architectures, see for example openoffice: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/openoffice.org which is only available for amd64, i386, powerpc and sparc. So SAGE would be available only on those architectures it actually builds on. > > I am also not a DD (Debian Developer), but I created and got around 5 > > packages to Debian unstable already. > > > > But do you still need a sponsor? Yes, for every upload. But once you find one, it is usually very fast, because it only takes him a couple of seconds to upload a new version of the package. > It is more than security bugs, but overall the Debian people prefer > stability over features in stable. And that is certainly a valid choice > for many people. So what is a problem with maintaining a package in the stable? If SAGE doesn't have security issues, the maintainer doesn't have to fix anything. > I agree, but (at least it seems to me personally) too much politics has > not always served the Debian project well. I can understand the arguments > about non-free kernel modules (and I don't run them, because I avoid > buying that hardware), but (and this is only an example) the discussion of > stripping all non-free firmware (and not non-redistributable) out of the > kernel just lets me shake my head with wonders. In a similar matter it > boils down to "free software" vs. "open source" - to the outsider it > appears the same, but for the insider ... Well, I don't see this as a question of some idealism or whatsoever, but as a very practical question - am I allowed to fix bugs, see the sources, redistribute things etc (the main section), or not (non-free section). So I am glad they are very strict about this. The same with Firefox/Iceweasel - first I thought they went crazy, but when I thought about it, it is the right thing to do - if they cannot fix the sources of Firefox (without renaming it), then it cannot be in main, so they renamed it. > It reminds me of an old User Friendly the comic strip where after the > techies have been allowed to install Linux the management assumes that > they are happy, while it is revealed in the next pane that they are having > an argument which Linux distribution to install. Well, everyone his favourite. > Well, you can certainly make that argument, but other volunteer driven > distributions do not have that problem. I use Gentoo (besides OpenSuSE, > Fedora Core, and a couple more) and even though they all have their > problems Gentoo is community driven and releases 4 times a year. It isn't That's true. So where do you think the problem is? I am sorry it's a little off topic, but I am curious. It is actually not that much offtopic, because SAGE is in fact a distribution with a really formidable goal of working on all linuxes (and wmware). I myself just use the infrastructure of Debian, because all I do is to put sources for the package and Debian takes care of everything else - distribution, compilation, download, advertisement. Plus it has more than 1000 developers and many more people like me, so it is very convenient and powerful to "use" them, instead of doing things on my own. > always a smooth ride, but in life there are always tradeoffs. Debian has > profited immensely from Ubuntu (for example the KDE and Gnome packages > shipped in Sarge were pushed by Ubuntu developers) and lots of former > Debian developers nowadays work for and get paid by Ubuntu. And those > packages they work on end up in Debian unstable/testing, so Debian > certainly profits from Ubuntu, even though the general Slashdot tenor has > been for some time that Ubuntu is bleeding Debian dry. There is no doubt that Ubuntu helps Debian (and vice versa) and linux in general. Ondrej --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ and http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
