Re: SSPACE-basic GitHub repository
Dear Nicola,
first of all many thanks for the quick reply.
> thanks for contacting me about the SSPACE-basic repository. The
> repository contains a copy of the "basic" version of SSPACE, which was
> released by Baseclear years ago under the GPL (v2 or later) and then
> discontinued.
This is very nice to hear; I didn't know that but it does indeed explain
this separate version and license.
> Then they removed all traces of this version from their
> website
Does that mean they do not support SSPACE-basic _at all_ any more? That
is, do you know if they still handle, for example, bug reports?
'Discontinued' seems to suggest that...
> SSPACE standard is a completely different version (at least license-wise).
Got it.
> The first commit of the repository
> https://github.com/nsoranzo/sspace_basic/commit/652d24aa74a3b45774db43b3483e71e40572a553
> contains an exact copy of the files I downloaded at the time from
> http://www.baseclear.com/download.php?file_id=1038 , the other commits
> are patches from me.
If Baseclear have discontinued SSPACE-basic, I was wondering if you
would be OK with being our upstream contact for SSPACE-basic? That means
that we would possibly forward bug reports, patches, etc. from Debian to
you if they address the SSPACE-basic software itself.
> I'd very happy if you package SSPACE-basic and I'd happy to accept
> patches to make the software more "packageable" if needed.
I will look into it as soon as I find some time, and contact you with
suggestions or patches if required. From what I can see without delving
too much into packaging, we won't be able to include the PDF manuals
without the source they were created from (LaTeX, Word, ...) also
included in the repository. This is a Debian policy; if these are not
available we'd have to exclude them from the packaged version.
An alternative is to just make plain text versions (copy&paste?) and to
include them in the repository. This would need to be done on your side
as well though.
Thanks again for your cooperation :) Always happy to hear such welcome
news and to see good software freed!
Best regards
Sascha
> --
> Nicola Soranzo, Ph.D.
> Data Infrastructure & Algorithms group
> The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC)
> Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK
> http://www.tgac.ac.uk/sequencing-informatics/
>
> On 04/06/16 16:49, Sascha Steinbiss wrote:
>> Dear Dr. Soranzo,
>>
>> I am writing you on behalf of the Debian Med team, a group within the
>> Debian project with the objective to package free software with
>> relevance in biology and medicine for official Debian.
>>
>> I noticed that you provide a GitHub repository with the SSPACE basic
>> source code [1], under the GPLv2 [2]. This version of SSPACE would in
>> principle be possible to be packaged for Debian, as inclusion into the
>> main archive requires such a free license, allowing for free
>> redistribution.
>> I was wondering how the version that you provide relates to the
>> non-free version (SSPACE standard) provided by Baseclear [3]. Is the
>> one that you provide a different or reduced-functionality version
>> compared to theirs? Most importantly, Baseclear make no mention of any
>> kind of free license — on the contrary, they require users to contact
>> them to obtain the software and also handle commercial users
>> separately, a notion that the GPL does not have.
>>
>> I would be glad if you could clarify how this GPL-licensed version
>> came to be? We would be very thankful if this was a version that the
>> original authors of SSPACE released under a free license, and would be
>> happy to package it for Debian.
>>
>> Many thanks
>> Sascha Steinbiss
>>
>> [1] https://github.com/nsoranzo/sspace_basic
>> [2] https://github.com/nsoranzo/sspace_basic/blob/master/COPYING
>> [3] http://www.baseclear.com/genomics/bioinformatics/basetools/SSPACE
>
--
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome Research
Limited, a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and a
company registered in England with number 2742969, whose registered
office is 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE.
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