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Re: Request for Ideas - Astronomy working group



Florian Rothmaier <frothmai@ari.uni-heidelberg.de> writes:
> I pretty much like Andreas' idea of starting an own blend. I think such
> a project could help the astronomy-related packagers to move closer
> together.

@Andreas: What would we need to start a blend?

> Moreover, there is a good chance in such a project that people (like me)
> get a better idea of who is working on which package(s), who could be
> asked in case of a specific issue and which tasks are the most urgent ones
> to be worked on in order to help the entire community.

Yes; however it is not clear what we would put there more than what we
already know from the Uploaders: field of the packages and the owners of
the ITP bugs.

As an idea (also for other blends): could we compile a "who-does-what"
from the tasks lists? As well as a "who-did-what" from the changelogs of
the packages mentioned there?

Some more ideas:

I would like to have more astronomy tasks: In the moment, we have
astronomy and astronomy-dev (and education-astronomy, in another
blend). Already this distinction is a bit difficult, since f.e. I don't
know whether we should put python packages (astropy) into astronomy or
astronomy-dev. Also, there are (probably; I am not sure) some user
groups with rather distinct needs, like:

- amateurs
- observational astronomy
- cosmology
- high energy astropyhsics (also somehow related to high energy physics)

We could create tasks lists for each of them.

"Interactive users" (as well as developers) may be use

- shell (like wcstools, qfits tools)
- python (matplotlib, astropy, numpy and such)
- tcl (probably outdated? fitstcl & Co.)
- IRAF (hard to bring into Debian), ...
- idl (non-free; what can be replaced by gdl? what about putting code to
  contrib?)

where it would be nice to have a "one-shot" installation for a certain
preference. Is this something that should go into a task list?

Then, there are "software recommendation lists" flying around in the
net, and precompiled addons, like ESO scisoft
<http://www.eso.org/sci/software/scisoft/>, or even complete
distributions, like Distroastro <http://www.distroastro.org/>.

They could also (somehow) be converted into "tasks".

Also, it would be nice to have a wishlist of software to be packaged,
however this is basically what an "RFP" bug is for. Maybe a wiki page
has lower threshold?

> Of course I would join the Debian Astronomy blend and I would also
> participate in a meeting, e.g. in Potsdam as suggested by Steffen. And I
> think we should have such a meeting soonish to coordinate a bit the next
> steps to go.

While you are right in principle, I must confess that in the next weeks
my time will be very limited (I am becoming a father very soon), and I
would very much like to take part in a meeting there. So, if we can
delay a personal or online meeting a bit,... till March or so?

Best regards

Ole


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