Bug#818373: ITP: vo-aladin -- Interactive sky atlas for astronomical images and datasets

[Paul Sladen <debian@paul.sladen.org>]

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package: wnpp
Owner: Paul Sladen <debian@paul.sladen.org>
Severity: Wishlist

* Package Name:         vo-aladin
* Version:              9.013
* Upstream Author:      Pierre Fernique, Strasbourg astronomical Data Center (CDS)
* URL:                  http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/
* Programming Language: Java
* License:              GPL-3
* Description:          Interactive sky atlas for astronomical images and datasets

Aladin is an desktop client for viewing and analysis of Virtual
Observatory (VO) astronomical datasets in real-time.  Data, tables and
images are dynamically fetched and displayed to the user, via the
network of registries and and data centres offering access using VO
protocols.
.
Aladin is written in Java, released under the GPLv3 and
maintined by the Strasbourg astronomical Data Center (CDS).
.
http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/

The main code base is written in Java and published under the GPLv3 as
Src.jar files, at:

  http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/nph-aladin.pl?frame=downloading

These 'jarballs' are unversioned; a tool to download and renumber the
upstream sources jarballs is available at:

  https://github.com/sladen/vo/blob/master/aladin-meta/fetch-aladin-source.py

Several internal dependencies are used, (included by default as binary
.class object in the source distribution:  'microhub' + dependencies,
'kxml2', 'jsamp', 'moc', 'cds-astro', 'savot'.

These dependences need separately packaging and uploading first, and
are listed in more detail at:

  https://github.com/sladen/vo/blob/master/aladin-meta/dependencies.md

The current application-to-application data sharing protocol is SAMP,
meaning that it should be possible to safely disable the the
'microhub') dependency.  The Plastic Manager (supplied by Microhub)
and its further dependencies appear to be frequently disabled in the
main code anyway, and can likely be fully commented out the via the
'USE_PLASTIC_REQUESTED=false' code-paths.

'libkxml2-java' is already packaged in Debian as:

  https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=libkxml2-java

'jsamp' is available in 'debian-astro' revision control, based on
previous work by Florian Rothmaier:

  http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debian-astro/packages/jsamp.git/

'MOC' presently has an unknown licence:

  http://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/MocInfo

Both the 'CDS-Astro' and 'SAVOT3' libraries have a non-free
educational-use-only licence, requiring explicit permission for
anything else.  The Present restrictive CDS licence text is in:

  http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/resources/doku.php?id=using_conditions
  "reproduction and representation as a private copy or for
  educational and research purposes" /
  "la reproduction et la representation a titre de copie privee ou des
  fins d'enseignement et de recherche"

Which is linked from the download pages at:

  http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/resources/doku.php?id=3Dunits
  "Read before any use of available Java classes"

  http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/resources/doku.php?id=3Dsavot_v3.0=20
  "Read before any use of available Java classes"

Although SAVOT3 appears under the educational-only (non-free) licence,
there is a SAVOT4 GPL3 implementation from Andre Schaaff (CDS) to be
found on Github.  If this is API-compatible, it should be possible to
package and switch to this:

  https://github.com/aschaaff/savot/

Communication is underway in order to try to get moc, cds-astro and,
if needed SAVOT3, clearly under the GPL-3 licence aswell as this is
required prior to inclusion in Debian.

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