[pkg-bioc] Hello!

[Johannes Ranke]

Hi Dirk

* Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> [060608 16:30]:

...

> You've just been added.  [ I also made Rafael a full-fledged project manager
> with all the magic powers Matt and I have; Rafael really knows all the right
> alioth tricks ] 

Thanks! I think the alioth pages really should be improved a little bit
(see my original mail).
 
> I would welcome enhancements / clarifications on the web pages -- I also find
> some of the text Steffen put there about the 'mission statement' a little,
> err, well, confusing.  So if you have some ideas, why don't you run them by
> here for checks and otherwise go ahead.

You mean the Wiki page AliothPkgBioc? Yes, this could be clarified.
 
> But just to clarify: This project isn;t about maintaining CRAN/BioC packages
> in Debian.  It could be -- up for discussion.  So what is it?  We're trying
> to write script(s) to automate the process and have fragments that sort-of do
> the job, albeit clumsily.  So don't expect doBy in Debian just like that. [
> You can of course prepare a package and seek a sponsor in the usual Debian
> ways. ]

Yes, I am aware of this. 

Some related questions: Is somebody really using all these packages that
can be built? Do you use cran2deb.pl for your Debian packages? It sounds
like you use an improved version on your machine for this.

> Now the good news is that while we didn't get the Google Summer of Code
> project I had suggested on the Debian wiki, we did get a show of hands from
> Andrew (CC'ed, Hi Andrew!) who wants to work on this during the summer even
> without Google sponsorship. Way to go Andrew!!  [ And don't forget to
> register yourself on alioth.debian.org so that we can add you too ... ]  So
> maybe in a few months time we do indeed have the infrastructre to do regular
> Debian builds of large chunks of CRAN and/or BioC.  Would be nice ...

So there would be two possibilities: 
- Upload everything to Debian (which I would also be hesitant to do,
  although this list could try to deal with the BTS).
- Maintain a separate repository, maybe even on CRAN and BioC servers.
 
> Now, for the current Perl code, I have a slightly modified version at home
> that isn't fully complete. I may comment some experimental bits out and check
> that back in.

<off-topic>
I would prefer python, since I would like to learn it, as opposed to
perl, which seems outdated to me (although I have a strong inclination 
to Debian, which is intimately tangled with perl, and think it is a
modern distribution. We had KDE 3.5.3 packages in sid even before it was
released!).
</off-topic>

Kind regards,

Johannes