Bug#1081155: ITP: openrocket -- Model Rocket Simulator
Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>
X-Debbugs-Cc: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
Package name : openrocket
Version : 23.09
URL : https://openrocket.info
License : GPLv3+
Programming Lang: Java
Description : Model Rocket Simulator
OpenRocket is a free, fully featured model rocket simulator that allows
you to design and simulate your rockets before actually building and
flying them.
.
OpenRocket features a full six-degree-of-freedom simulation, realistic
wind modeling, a multitude of different components including free-form
and canted fins, clustering and staging.
Years ago, I packaged OpenRocket for Debian main. It's a Java app, and as
upstream embedded more and more third-party class libs in their source tree,
often in the form of binary jar files, I eventually "gave up" and replaced
the full source build with an installer for the "fat" application jar file
provided by upstream in contrib. Then upstream development stalled, and
there were no new releases for some years. The installer package gradually
became less useful as the release it was designed for from 2015 had a hard
dependency on Java versions no longer available in any version of Debian.
In recent times, the upstream development community around OpenRocket has
gotten healthier, and new releases have been made. Because the existing
installer in contrib did not work with them, I agreed with the idea in
bug #1079850 that the installer should just be removed from Debian contrib
entirely.
In the near term, it is possible to use upstream's distribution-agnostic
Linux download to obtain and run the program, though that is of course
side-stepping Debian policy and the DFSG.
For some time, I've been slowly working through the issues that prevent a
"proper" build of OpenRocket for Debian main. A couple bugs filed upstream
and against class library packages in Debian have been responded to, but
there's more to do. I'm filing this ITP as a replacement for both the
installer package just removed from contrib, and the RFP filed as bug
#1021564 which has of course been closed with the removal of the existing
package.
To be clear, I'd *LOVE* to have help from anyone who groks Java packaging
in Debian to get the remaining embedded class libraries that aren't already
packaged taken care of, updating those that have fallen out of date, etc.
Feel free to reach out to me directly if you'd like to help get OpenRocket
back in Debian main!
Bdale
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