Bug#670851: RFS: plotter/2.2-1[ITP]

[Benoît Knecht <benoit.knecht@fsfe.org>]

Hi Ralf,

Ralf Jung wrote:
> I am looking for a sponsor for my package "plotter"
> 
>  Package name    : plotter
>  Version         : 2.2-1
>  Upstream Author : Ralf Jung <post@ralfj.de>
>  URL             : http://mathespiele.ralfj.de/programm.php?id=25
>  License         : GPLv2
>  Section         : math
> 
> It builds those binary packages:
> 
>   plotter    - Simple Qt-based mathematical function plotter
> 
> To access further information about this package, please visit the following 
> URL:
> 
> http://mentors.debian.net/package/plotter
> 
> 
> Alternatively, one can download the package with dget using this command:
> 
>   dget -x http://mentors.debian.net/debian/pool/main/p/plotter/plotter_2.2-1.dsc

I took a look at your package; here are a few comments:

  - In debian/copyright, you have a license paragraph called "GPL-2"
    that states: "either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
    any later version"; so either this paragraph should be called
    "GPL-2+", or you should correct the text of the license. From the
    license headers in the source, it seems to be the latter; that's a
    problem because part of the files in the package are licensed under
    the GPL-3 or LGPL-3, which are incompatible with the GPL-2 [1].
    Please sort it out.

    [1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GNUGPL

    For the tri-licensed files, see [2] for the correct syntax.

    [2] http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/#stand-alone-license-paragraph

  - The man page is quite short and essentially repeats the long
    description of the package (which presumably the user has already
    read before installing the package). It would be more useful to take
    elements from manual.html and manual_graph.html. Also, please
    consider removing the AUTHOR section (see man-pages(7)).

  - You install the German changelog as
    /usr/share/doc/plotter/changelog.gz, where most users would expect
    to find an English version; would you consider providing a
    translation?

  - In debian/rules, you could avoid overriding dh_install by using a
    debian/plotter.install file; see dh_install(1). Same for
    dh_auto_clean, see dh_clean(1).

  - Your long description should mention how plotter compares to similar
    programs, such as qtiplot or gnuplot [3].

    [3] http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/best-pkging-practices.html#bpp-pkg-desc

  - Please run "wrap-and-sort -as" (or simply "wrap-and-sort" if you
    prefer) in the root of your package.

Cheers,

-- 
Benoît Knecht