Re: RFS: gcx - astronomical image processing and photometry
Hi Radu!!
I want to see this happen; unfortunately I'm still in the early NM
queue, so cannot (yet!) sponsor your uploads. I've read the .diff,
and I'm going to critique your packaging, hoping to make it trivial
for someone to sponsor.
Some will critique your inclusion of the ./debian/ directory in the
upstream source. Personally, I'm okay with it; and it probably helps
reduce the overhead of the project.
But, why is there a .diff then? Just to avoid making another gcx
release, from which nonDebian users won't benefit? (This is one of
the primary objections of people to including ./debian/ in an upstream
tarball).
./docs/Makefile.in:
Since you are the upstream author, you should not have to patch this
file. Instead, it should be made sufficiently general to work for
Debian users and nonDebian users.
Indeed, the only other changes in your .diff are from autotools.
Personally, I find that a readable .diff is more important than the
goal of including the new config.{sub,guess} from autotools-dev in the
.diff. So, (if you like), you could *remove* those 2 files in the
./debian/rules:clean target, and cp or ln them before building.
Removing is okay, because dpkg-source ignores removals, assuming you
know what you are doing; this makes the .diff much smaller.
(The following files are included in the 'upstream' tarball):
./debian/compat:
You might consider bumping this to '5', and build-dep on debhelper
(>=5.0.0); the only problem is that it complicates backporting to
sarge.
gcx.doc-base:
Its probably best not to include the phrase "This is the" as the
opening abstract phrase. I'm probably being overly picky, though..
You can (and should) remove the template maintscripts (prerm preinst
postrm postinst), since the debhelper tools will add the relevent
snippets in the correct way, even without templates. If you needed
specialized maintscripts, then you would keep them, and the
#DEBHELPER# token.
./debian/copyright:
Pertti Paakkonen <firstname.lastname_at_joensuu_dot_fi>
Is that actually somebody's address? :)
./debian/control:
Priority: extra might be appropriate, since this is IMHO a specialized
application, and it is unlikely that another nonextra package will
Depend on gcx. Reference: policy 2.5.
./debian/rules:
You could remove some comments here, and dh_installman doesn't
presently do anything.
Please consider adding a copyright statement to ./debian/copyright and
./debian/rules to the effect of "Debian packaging is copyright (C)
2005 by Radu Corlan, and is released under the GNU GPL, which may be
found in ...".
Please also consider adding a "watch" file, using
qa.debian.org/watch/sf.php.
(See http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2005/12/msg00035.html for
more info about this hack).
Please note that I'm being critical here; this package looks fine. I
really, really hope that someone will sponsor it! Though I don't
presently use gcx, I have tested it, and would recommend it to anyone
doing observational astronomy under Linux. Documentation, in
particular, is excellent.
Cheers from Reynolds Observatory, where I'm presently taking data on
"Bernhard 02".
Clear skies,
Justin
On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 11:42:06PM +0200, Radu Corlan wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking for a sponsor for gcx, an astronomical gtk app. I'm also
> the upstream author for this package, which has had about two dozen
> public source releases in the last 2.5 years (see freshmeat page:
> http://freshmeat.net/gcx for statistics).
>
> The package files can be found at http://gcx.sf.net/debian
>
> The package is lintian and linda-clean and builds with pbuilder for
> woody, sarge and sid.
>
> Package details follow:
>
> Package: gcx
> Version: 0.9.7-1
> Section: science
> Priority: optional
> Architecture: i386
> Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.5-1), libglib1.2 (>= 1.2.0), libgtk1.2 (>= 1.2.10-4), li
> bx11-6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxext6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxi6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0
> )
> Recommends: gnuplot
> Installed-Size: 2828
> Maintainer: Radu Corlan <radu@corlan.net>
> Description: astronomical image processing and photometry gtk+ application
> Gcx is an astronomical image processing and data reduction tool,
> with an easy to use graphical user interface. It provides a
> complete set of data reduction functions for CCD photometry,
> with frame WCS fitting, automatic star identification, aperture
> photometry of target and standard stars, single-frame ensemble
> photometry solution finding, multi-frame color coefficient
> fitting, extinction coefficient fitting, and all-sky photometry;
> as well as general-purpose astronomical image processing functions
> (bias, dark, flat, frame alignment and stacking); It can function
> as a FITS viewer.
> .
> For automating data reduction of large numbers of frames, gcx
> implements recipe files. These files contain specific information
> about the objects measured in each field. Once a recipe file is
> created for a given field, any number of frames of that field
> can be reduced without user intervention.
> .
> The program can control CCD cameras and telescopes, and implement
> automatic observation scripting. Cameras are controlled through a
> hardware-specific server, to which gcx connects through a TCP socket.
> It generates FITS files with comprehensive header information.
> .
> Telescopes and mounts using the LX200 protocol are
> supported. Gcx uses it's automatic field identification
> functions to refine telecope pointing accuracy.
> .
> When invoked without arguments, the program runs in GUI
> mode. Most functions are also accessible through command line
> options, allowing integration in a custom reduction pipeline.
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