Re: First GDL packages ready for upload

[Ole Streicher <olebole@debian.org>]

Thibaut Paumard <thibaut@debian.org> writes:
> Le 29/06/2015 11:37, Ole Streicher a écrit :
>> In the moment, there is however a much bigger problem: some files are
>> not free:
>
> Looks like they are suitable for non-free, although of course we all
> prefer to get or make a DFSG-free alternative whenever possible.

I would rather exclude the non-free parts. They are quite limited and
have almost no reverse dependencies. The few functions that have
reverse-deps are: ymd2dn, isarray, repchr, and these are quite trivial
to replace with some clean-room code.

Without permission from the copyright holders, we would lose:

 * factor: Find prime factors of a given number. This does not work
   anyway since the file factor.pro does not contain a function or
   subroutine "FACTOR". If one would need this, its a programming primer.

 * getwrd: Return the n'th word from a text string. Also simple to
   rewrite if one would need it.

 * polrec+recpol+sphdist: Polar <-> rectangular coords; 
   Angular distance between points on a sphere. Also quite trivial.

 * eqpole_grid, qdcb_grid: Produce an overlay of latitude/longitude
   lines resp a polar projection grid over a plot or image

 * wcs_demo.pro: Demonstrate the basic capabilities of procedures
   WCSSPH2XY & WCSXY2SPH

 * jplephinterp, jplephread, jplephtest: JPL epiphemis. They are not
   working anyway since the data file is not included. They are also
   needed by
   - baryvel: Heliocentric and barycentric velocity components of Earth.
   - planet_coords:  high precision RA and DEC for the planets given a date

 * blkshift: Shift a block of data to a new position in a file (possibly
   overlapping)

 * tdb2tdt: Relativistic clock corrections due to Earth motion in solar system

Removing them sounds like a good compromise to me.

Best

Ole