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retitle 376431 RFP: openwatcom -- C/C++ compiler/IDE that make
efficient, portable code
submitter 376431 jasonspiro4@gmail.com
severity 376431 wishlist
thanks
It looks unlikely I will manage to package this. It's too big a
package to deal with as my first package ever. Open Watcom is complex;
it does not use autoconf; and nobody has ever packaged the Linux port
of Open Watcom before. Main issues include:
- Open Watcom 1.5 does not seem to build on Linux. 1.4 and the dailies
seem to build fine though.
- the license (though they don't have to make that many changes to it
- see thread on debian-legal)
- paths and $WATCOM (Open Watcom expects the $WATCOM variable to be
set, which conflicts with policy)
- where will the data files go? surely not in /usr/local/watcom, right?
- there has been some argument in the past in
news://news.openwatcom.org/openwatcom.contributors about how the paths
should be arranged.
- there'd be a lot of manpages to write. and forget the idea of using
help2man, openwatcom help is not in the proper format
I think the first thing for whoever wants to package this to do would
be to work with the upstream committers to deal with 2 things: the
license (my advice: try to get it in non-free first, GPL idea can wait
till later) and the path issue.
In my opinion, the paths issue should be dealt with later on, in
private and not on a public mailing list, so as to avoid starting a
flamewar.
If someone else decides to try take a stab at it, I'd love to hear
your progress and I might be interested in co-maintaining.
Also, if someone wants my .diff.gz with a debian/rules, a
debian/control, and which modifies wcc, wcc386, and part of wlink to
look in other paths, email me. The changes the .diff.gz makes aren't
that well-written though.
Cheers,
Jason
change ITP to RFP
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