Re: the math section should really be science
On Sun, Mar 11, 2001 at 07:03:51PM +0100, Josip Rodin wrote:
> > > > I'm packaging viewmol, a program for visualising molecules, used in
> > > computational chemistry.
> > >
> > > The question arises, what subsection should it be put into?
> > > A comparable program, rasmol, is already in debian, in the math
subsection.
> > > But computational chemistry is not, strictly speaking, mathematics (it
> > > can be considered a sub-branch of mathematics, but you don't usually
talk
> > > about the weight or electron affinity of a number).
> >
> > So, put it in "science" section.
> >
> > % grep-available -F Section -s Package science
> > Package: hodie
> > %
> >
> > This has been discussed already, and the new section was created/allowed.
>
> It's not very useful if http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science
> does not exist. I'll start moving packages of mine when I see
> > the section actually listed anywhere.
>That was a bug on the web pages, I fixed it now.
Thanks for fixing it.
Seems to me there's still a gaping hole in policy though. Is
packages.debian.org really supposed to be the definitive arbiter of policy
with regards to sections? The grep-available trick is obscure enough to not
count. Shouldn't these sections rather be in Policy proper?
Besides, there are other related issues: menu has its own section policy,
and it's not in sync with the package sections (again, there is
a math section but no science section). Shouldn't all these things be
listed together in official Policy? menu sections do not "have" to be the
same as package sections, but does it make sense for them to be different?
On a side note, I noticed gnumeric was also in section "math". Given the
general intentions we have of making Linux useful on the desktop and
therefore to businesses, is it a good idea to create a "business" section
for containing gnumeric, gnucash, cbb, xacc etc. ?
Drew
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