Re: post-inst message for autodock
Michael Banck wrote:
> (CCing -science because I think this applies to all fields of science
> and should see wider discussion)
>
> For -science, the issue is about user registration (usually before
> download, or on program startup) which is an important tool for
> scientific software authors to plead for further funding. It was
> proposed that the autodock package (where the registration
> page/reminder/whatever was patched out by Debian)
It was not patched out. The source/binary of autodock is normally accessible only via a
web site that demands registration. And Debian redistributes it all thus rendering that
web page obsolete with an increasing number of users of the package, particularly via the
Ubuntu route. Also, since the program is likely to be distributed on larger clusters, one
cannot be informed from pop-con about the number of users that the software may have.
> be changed to show a
> debconf note to users upon installation instead.
>
..
>
> My proposal would be to add an inofficial control file field like
> XB-Registration: http://foo.org/register which could be exposed in the
> task pages as a "Register as a user for this package" link on the task
> pages.
>
> If this proves successful with users, upstream authors and developers,
> we can propose it to Debian at large.
>
> What do others think?
It would be a nice step forward.
I could also imagine some kind of semi-auto-registration to be implementable, since all
the tools basically collect the same kind of information.
The registration performed by OpenOffice could probably not be (completely) substituted
this way since it affects also the internal functionality of the program. It would
nonetheless be nice to also integrate OOo in such a discussion.
Best,
Steffen
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