[Debian-astro-maintainers] Bug#1023795: Please undo the replace of pgplot with giza-pgplot

[Ole Streicher]

Hi James,

Citing from 2.2.1:
| The main archive area comprises the Debian distribution.
| Only the packages in this area are considered part of the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| distribution.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| [...]
| Every package in main must comply with the DFSG (Debian Free Software
| Guidelines).

Section 2.2.2 and 2.2.4 describe contrib and non-free as "supplemental 
packages intended to work with the Debian distribution".

I see this distinction as an major point (not just formally), and I 
myself concentrate on the support of free software, which is Debian 
devoted for. That's why I propagate to use giza here and propose to 
discuss any issues with the authors of giza first before using an old 
non-free package (that is also completely unmaintained today). And I 
would also propagate that those who want to see pgplot within Debian to 
put some efforts (maybe coordinated) and discuss this with Caltech as 
the copyright holder. I am wondering why one doesn't see any of these 
efforts happen up to now, which makes my own motivation to drive for a 
compromise quite low.

However, apart from propagating this, it is not my decision where to use 
giza as a replacement for pgplot. Responsible here are the maintainers 
of libpgplot-perl. So, if you want to have this changed, please open a 
bug for that package (or re-assign this one) and convince them.

Best

Ole