Re: Roadmap to Lenny: news release draft.

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Hi all,

After a five-month lapse, I tried to finish the redaction of the news for the
release of Debian Med for Lenny. I attached the WML source to this email.

Have a nice day,

(and let's keep finger crossed ;)

-- 
Charles

<define-tag pagetitle>What is new for Debian Med in Lenny ?</define-tag>
<define-tag release_date>2009-02-15</define-tag>
#use wml::debian::news
# $Id: $

<p>
  We are proud to announce the first release of Debian Med together with
  <q>Lenny</q>, , the new <a href="/releases/stable">stable</a> version of the
  Debian operating system.
</p>

<p>
  The <a href="http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med/";>Debian-Med</a> project
  continues its <q>healthy</q> growth, which is reflected in a <a
  href="dmstats1.pdf">continuous increase of packages for medical care</a> and <a
  href="authorstat_med.pdf">an increasing number of people</a> who are actively
  working on the project. Our current work is concentrated in our three main
  areas of activity: imaging, bioinformatics, and medical practice. During this
  release cycle, we developed new dynamic web pages to present the content of
  our meta-packages, organised in <q><a
  href="http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/";>tasks</a></q>.
</p> 

<h2>Medical imaging</h2>

<p>
  Many new packages were made for programs supporting the <a
  href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DICOM";>DICOM</a> and Nifti formats, that
  are important standards in the field of medical imaging: <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/aeskulap";>Aeskulap</a>, <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/amide";>AMIDE</a>, <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/dicomnifti";>dinifti</a>, <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/fslview";>FSLview</a>, <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/imagej";>ImageJ</a>, <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/python-nifti";>PyNIfTi</a>. Thanks to a patch
  allowing the use of MySQL&nbsp;5, we could continue to distribute  <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/ctn";>CTN</a> in Lenny. <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/sid/ctsim";>CTSIM</a>, which depends on an old
  version of the WxWidgets library, will not be part of the release, but it
  will nevertheless stay part of Debian in the unstable section. Once upgraded
  to a more recent version of WxWidgets, the Debian Med project will prepare an
  official <a href="http://backports.org";>backport</a>.
</p>

<p>
  You can find all the programs for medical imaging in our
  <a
  href="http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/imaging.html";><code>med-imaging</code></a>
  package.
</p>


<h2>Sequence analysis and bioinformatics</h2>

<p>
  This release saw the arrival in Debian of <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/emboss";>EMBOSS</a>, a very
  comprehensive suite of software for sequence analysis, with one of its web
  interfaces, <a href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/emboss-explorer";>EMBOSS
  Explorer</a>, that you can use locally, on your intranet or on the Internet
  after an installation as simple as typing <q><code>aptitude install
  emboss-explorer</code></q>.
</p>

<p>
  Debian Med now distributes all the major free programs for multiple sequence
  alignment. One of them, <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/t-coffee";>T-Coffee</a>, can function as
  a meta-aligner (<q>M-Coffee</q>), that runs multiple programs and combines
  their outputs in a higher-quality alignment. Its author kindly developed a
  version that only depends on free software, <q>DM-Coffee</q>, in which <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/clustalw";>Clustal&nbsp;W</a> is substituted
  by <a href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/kalign";>Kalign</a>.
</p>

<p>
  This first release of Debian-Med addresses some very medical field of
  structural bioinformatics. The <a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/autodock";>AutoDock</a> suite has arrived
  that allows to evaluate metabolites for their affinity to protein receptors,
  the basis for in silico drug screening. Debian-Med also references further
  structural packages that are provided by the Debian Science community like
  Gromacs or PyMol."
</p>


<p>
  You can find all the programs for sequence analysis and bioinformatics in our
  <a
  href="http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/bio.html";><code>med-bio</code></a>
  package.
</p>


<h2>Diversification of the medical packages.</h2>

<p>
  Debian Med covers a broad area relevant to medicine, with for instance
  software for helping people to take care of their health and body (<a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/pondus";>Pondus</a>), software to study
  the spread of epidemic diseases (<a
  href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/epigrass";>Epigrass</a>), and programs
  for organizing the professional work of medical doctors
  (<a href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/gnumed-client";>GNUMed</a>). The
  <a href="http://packages.debian.org/experimental/gnumed-server";>GNUMed
  server</a> is not yet available as a stable Debian package, but can be found
  in our experimental section for those who would like to help by testing.
</p>

<p>
  You can find all the programs for health and medicine in our
  <a  href="http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/practice.html";><code>med-practice</code></a>,
  <a  href="http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/epi.html";><code>med-epi</code></a>, and
  <a  href="http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/tools.html";><code>med-tools</code></a>
  packages.
</p>