Bug#712781: src:scilab: please use SLICOT Debian package instead of embedded copy

[Pierre Gruet]

Control: forwarded -1 https://gitlab.com/scilab/scilab/-/issues/13151
Control: tags -1 - moreinfo

Hi Sébastien,

Le 28/05/2023 à 17:46, Sébastien Villemot a écrit :
> Hi Pierre,
> 
[...]
> 
> The Debian package src:slicot contains a pre-release of version 5.0 of
> Slicot, which was the last version distributed by upstream under the
> GPL (later versions are proprietary).
> 
> However at some point upstream changed their mind and decided to stop
> distributing the 5.0 release under the GPL, so they removed it from
> their website. The website now has only has version 4.5 under the GPL.
> We kept 5.0 in Debian because there is nothing that prevents us from
> doing so from a legal point of view. Other projects (e.g. the “control”
> package for Octave) do the same.
> 
> But it looks like the version of Slicot embedded in Scilab is even
> older than 4.5, and corresponds to version 4.0. My guess is that the
> missing symbols that you get correspond to functions that were removed
> between 4.0 and 5.0.
> 
> Unfortunately this probably means that fixing the present bug requires
> more work than just patching the build system (i.e. Scilab upstream
> needs to move to a more recent Slicot).
> 

Thanks a lot for your help on understand the issue. Admittedly there is 
quite a lot of work to do here :)

I am updating the Forwarded-to URI, this issue is still open upstream.


> Best wishes,
> 

Same to you,

-- 
Pierre
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