[Neurodebian-devel] RE : Packaging of anatomist (was: Latest and greatest in visualization of MRI data?)

[Michael Hanke]

Hey,

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 02:14:44PM +0100, RIVIERE Denis wrote:
> Otherwise the stable branch (brainvisa-anatomist 4.0.2) still builds
> with our old tool: "build-config". You have to get all sources in the
> same directory (untar the tarballs from the web site, or get a svn
> copy of the 4.0 branches), set the "build-config" project in your
> PATH, and do: build-config --buildMode release anatomist (you cann
> append options "--buildOptons -j4" to make use of a 4-core system for
> instance) If all dependencies are OK (mainly, development packages for
> sigc++2, Qt4, xml2, sip, PyQt, and optionally dcmtk, minc, jpeg, tiff
> for plugins), it should go OK on an Ubuntu system. The main problem
> with this build-config tool is that errors are very difficult to
> interpret...  There is an additional option "--doc" to build docs (API
> docs using doxygen and epydoc, and docbook manuals), but they are
> perhaps not needed for a first runtime package.

I saw that in the current release tarballs. However, I'm not too
inclined to spend time on figuring out a brainvisa packaging based on a
tool that is already known to vanish soonish. I believe it would be more
useful to figure out a workflow for the future.

> The VTK plugin of
> Anatomist also requires VTK 5.4 (not 5.2, not 5.6) and vtkINRIA3D:
> https://gforge.inria.fr/projects/vtkinria3d/

Ah! The "not 5.2, not 5.6, only 5.4" is something that is impossible in
a distribution environment. At NeuroDebian our main goal is not to
create some packages that can be installed on some systems, instead we
are working on a proper integration of a software into the Debian
operating system (and Ubuntu, Mint, ... for that matter).

Consequently all software has to evolve with the ecosystem. Right now,
Ubuntu and Debian carry 5.4, but that will change very soon (5.6 is
already waiting in Debian experimental). If we package brainvisa for
Debian, we need to make sure that all involved parties are commited to
the goal of keeping it integrated. I don't know the reasons why 5.6
wouldn't work (maybe it is just that nobody has worked on it yet), but
if that is not planned/impossible for whatever reasons we are better off
not packaging this plugin at all.

Michael

-- 
Michael Hanke
http://mih.voxindeserto.de