On Thursday 25 January 2007 15:55, Andreas Moll wrote: > > Sorry if I missed something obvious, but why not calling it directly > > from the sources instead of duplicating it in /debian ? > All right, I will call the script script directly. And if it is in the upstream source already, then there will be no issue with the diff's permissions when creating new files. > > > I will reduce the set of supported architecures in the control file to: > > > Architecture: i386 amd64 ia64 sparc > > > I guess that a package does not have to support all arches, or am I > > > wrong? > > > > The policy says that restricting architecture support should only be > > used when the program is not portable. I think that is not the case of > > BALLview. There is at least one more architecture on which it would be > > definitely useful: powerpc. For slow architectures on which it does not > > make sense to do some structural biology, it is still the responsability > > of their lead developpers to decide that a package should not build. So > > if it only requires to fix the configure script to support all Debian > > arches, I would say: go for it! > > The problem is, that my application is based on roughly > 500,000 lines of code, > that we developed in the last years. I can not guarantee > that it will work on > the other platforms, especially because we are dependent > on external libraries, Since the libraries are built automatically through the Debian build daemon, you can to a certain degree expect a homogenous and consistent behaviour across all platforms. This is what renders Debian fairly unique. > that may show unsuspected behaviour. If a library shows unsuspected behaviour, then it is not your bug but one of that library. The inter-platform consistency of Debian may be one of the best ways to locate an issue. > What is even worse: I have no computer available to test > our software for example > on a power pc architecture. What happens if my package > fails to build on such a machine > and I get a critical "Fails to build"error? Once you are a Debian developer, and I hope that you will apply to become one, you have access to machines allowing you to investigate that issue yourself. However, a bug on a platfrom that nobody uses will remain unnoticed. You already made the acquaintance of Charles who is using the PowerPC and cares for your package. I myself looked into packaging your work quite a while ago (i386,x86_64) and am likely to have a look - just ask. You may be interested to say hello to the Debian-Med community of Debian http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med/ that features many list subscribers with a background in structural biology - be it from the wet or the dry lab. A major reason to use Debian IMO is its community. Best regards Steffen
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