Re: Quake 2 sources GPL'd
On Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 01:42:45AM -0500, Ben Collins wrote:
> > But you do agree that it requires having *some* data, no matter what
> > "game" it's for? Which means having a Depends: quake2-data?
> >
> > And if you wish to argue that it can be used to develop the data, then
> > you should have no problem in providing such a package of it.
>
> Does python "Depend: some-python-script"? No, it doesn't. Python is an
> interpreter. Same logic applies for the quake2 engine. Other things will
> depend on it, not the other way around.
You are trying to duck a fundamental issue: that a quake-engine binary
package will be utterly useless to about everyone.
First: Python is immediately useful without any scripts.
You can run it with the -c option to run python commands without any script
coming into the game.
Second: It is easy to write scripts. People do write them.
The challenge here is: Show me a single useful way to invoke the quake
engine with only free software or data. Even if it is just an empty room
without any monsters, weapons. Just a wall. Something.
Third: Python scripts exist. There are plenty in Debian.
Show me a quake-data package that requires the engine.
If only one point would be true for quake-engine, we wouldn't have this
argument.
I took the quake source, compiled it, and the first thing it complained
about was that it couldn't load the file "pics/colormap.pcx". Can you give
me such a file under a free license? There doesn't seem to be information
about the format of the file. For something to study and learn from it is
exceptionally terse.
I hope that people will write free data files for the engine, and a
simple example data set (it doesn't need to be a complete playable game)
would go a long way to bring your argument forward. But without any sign of
such data, or people who actually say "we are working on it" rather than
"somebody else might work on it", it's pretty pointless to include quake2 in
Debian main.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org brinkmd@debian.org
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org marcus@gnu.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de
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