On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 1:59 AM, Tim Abbott <tabb...@mit.edu> wrote: > > On Thu, 23 Apr 2009, Gonzalo Tornaria wrote: > >> would it make sense to have a small "sage-source" debian package which >> depends on the (few) build tools required to build debian and which >> upon installation downloads sage, compiles it, and places it in a >> (debian specific) standard place in the system? Alternatively, the >> package actually comes with the full source code (better for places >> with apt caches or debian mirrors). I recall once upon a time there >> was a (similar idea) debian package for netscape, which would actually >> download it from netscape website and install it. > > I think the reason Netscape was done that way is actually because it > wasn't free software, and so Debian wasn't willing to distribute it > directly. In fact, Google suggests the Netscape package was just a script > that downloaded the binaries from the website and then installed them.
Yes, that's correct. It was just a script --- the script was indeed free, so IIRC the package lived in "contrib" (as a free package which depends on a non-free/out of debian package). > I think it would be hard to avoid violating Debian policy with such a > package, and even if it did not, I suspect the Debian community would > frown on such an arrangement for a piece of software in the main (free > software) section of the archive. I'd assume such a package would enter debian in the contrib section (if at all). I fail to see a reason for it to go to non-free. Still, a package in contrib which downloads and compiles sage would be definitely better than no package, and in some cases even better than an outdated package. Disclaimer: I've been using debian for a loooong time, and I only track the main section --- so such a package wouldn't reach me if it lives in contrib --- but (a) I still think it'd be useful for some people (b) I'd frown on such a package being in the main section of debian. Gonzalo --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-devel-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
