Re: [Help-gsl] Re: Debian and the GFDL

[Joel J. Adamson <address@hidden>]

>>>>> "Hongzheng" == Hongzheng Wang <address@hidden> writes:

    Hongzheng> You seriously underestimate the contribution of Debian,
    Hongzheng> even only considering the packaging of GSL.  Providing
    Hongzheng> pre-compiled binary packages and organizing them well is
    Hongzheng> one of the merits offered by Linux distribution, which, I
    Hongzheng> think, is a well known truth, right?

A package does not have to be provided by the official distributors to
be useful to users of a particular distribution.  I use a package (that
is managed in an apt-like-system) for Slackware maintained by a
third-party (www.slacky.eu) packager.  Slackware does not include GSL
(or Openoffice, or Gnome) because it is a low priority package and the
responsibilty lies on the users who want it, or have the means to
provide it.

A perfectly good solution would be for a third-party to package the .deb
COMPLETE with documentation and provide a link on the GSL main page.

And despite my use of a precompiled package, installing a library is
fairly trivial --- how many times are you going to waste those precious
CPU cycles?  And removing it is not a big deal either, since an
installed library (at least GSL) is not a danger unless save for
conserving drive space.  If the package had been unavailable, I
definitely would have compiled from source.

Joel
-- 
Joel J. Adamson
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB #3280, Coker Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280

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