Re: Status of uw-prism packaging for Debian
Hi Ira,
On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 10:08:27PM -0700, Ira Kalet wrote:
>
> Thanks for the reference to the policy and other documents. I now
> have a pretty good sense of what is involved.
>
> 1. I checked a little further because there are other Common Lisp
> code packages in Debian, and I have some installed. It seems that
> they use the Common Lisp Controller and asdf (packages
> common-lisp-controller and cl-asdf). I have these installed. I
> already wrote asdf code for SLIK and can probably do the same for
> Prism. There is another package, dh-lisp, that claims to help
> create Common Lisp based packages. I am also reading the Common
> Lisp in Debian manual. It is very helpful but insufficient.
>
> I think the SLIK library should be a separate package, and the prism
> package can then depend on it. Since SLIK is very small (only about
> 10K lines of code in 25 or so files, it would be more manageable.
> Also it is a library rather than a runnable program. The full prism
> program is an extra layer of complexity.
>
> So, obviously, other Debian packages are written in Common Lisp, and
> I will take a look to see how they are organized. The one that
> would be the most like Prism is the Portable Allegroserve package,
> cl-aserve. I'll take a look at that. However, I do not have the
> resources that the Lisp hackers at Franz, Inc. do.
While beeing totally Lisp illiterate myself this plan sounds somehow
sensible.
> 2. Which brings me to the next issue. Because of my health issues
> (I think I wrote earlier about this - I have advanced metastatic
> kidney cancer that has spread to my brain, as well as lungs and
> abdomen. I will learn more about the status of the brain mets
> tomorrow afternoon) I cannot commit to any long term support, and
> certainly cannot fulfil the role of maintainer. I don't know who
> could do this. There is one person who might be able to - I will
> ask him.
I really wish you all the best for your health. As a very personal
opinion I could imagine that picking some task which sounds interesting
to you and keeps you focussed on something you like could give you some
hope. We have some prominent examples inside Debian. BTW, if you
write about health issues: The Debian Med mailing list is published
in a searchable web archive for everybody.
> 3. Finally, there is still the issue of what the US FDA might say
> about distribution within the US, as software products that do what
> Prism does are considered medical devices and cannot be distributed
> without FDA 510K premarket approval, an onerous process to be sure.
> It does not matter that no money is involved. What do you do about
> other debian-med packages? Might any of them be considered a
> medical device?
I'm not aware that we have a comparable case. From my admittedly naive
point of view distribution wise it does not matter whether the program
is distributed from your web site or in addition from the Debian
mirrors. There was a time when Debian was maintaining a specific non-US
archive containing crypto stuff that was covered by some US export law
but this was a long time ago and all crypto software is included in
Debian. However, if you want to know for sure I might forward this
question to the debian-legal list.
> Sorry for the long winded email. I will send you an update tomorrow
> night about my health status.
All the best to you
Andreas.
--
http://fam-tille.de
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