[Debian-science-sagemath] Bug#852780: cantor-backend-sage: sagemath is now in Debian, package does not work with it

[Ximin Luo]

Package: cantor-backend-sage
Version: 4:16.08.3-1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

SageMath has been in Debian for about a month now: https://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sagemath.html

I just did a quick test and it seems not to work however, it detects the Sage version incorrectly and has trouble interfacing with it:

$ cantor 
dir:  "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins/cantor/backends"
Error while loading plugin:  "."
Error while loading plugin:  ".."
Creating NullBackend
Creating SageBackend
dir:  "/usr/bin/cantor/backends"
Created a CantorPart
Backend  "Sage"  offers extensions:  ("HistoryExtension", "ScriptExtension", "CASExtension", "CalculusExtension", "LinearAlgebraExtension", "PlotExtension", "PackagingExtension")
Spawning a new Sage session
new worksheetaccess interface
()
[..]
()
()
loading assistants...
dir:  "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins/cantor/assistants"
Error while loading assistant:  "."
Error while loading assistant:  ".."
plugin  "AdvancedPlot"  requires  ("AdvancedPlotExtension")
plugin  "AdvancedPlot"  is   not   supported by  "Sage"
plugin  "Create Matrix"  requires  ("LinearAlgebraExtension")
plugin  "Create Matrix"  is    supported by  "Sage"
KXMLGUI file found at deprecated location ("/usr/share/cantor/cantor_create_matrix_assistant.rc") -- please use ${KXMLGUI_INSTALL_DIR} to install this file instead.
plugin  "Differentiate"  requires  ("CalculusExtension")
plugin  "Differentiate"  is    supported by  "Sage"
KXMLGUI file found at deprecated location ("/usr/share/cantor/cantor_differentiate_assistant.rc") -- please use ${KXMLGUI_INSTALL_DIR} to install this file instead.
[.. info about other plugins ..]
dir:  "/usr/bin/cantor/assistants"
loading panel plugins for session of type  "Sage"
dir:  "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins/cantor/panels"
Error while loading panel:  "."
Error while loading panel:  ".."
plugin  "Help"  requires  ("")
Requesting capabilities of SageSession
plugin  "Help"  is    supported
setting session to  0x55557df1ed30
plugin  "Variable Manager"  requires  ("VariableManagementExtension")
plugin  "Variable Manager"  is   not   supported
dir:  "/usr/bin/cantor/panels"
Requesting capabilities of SageSession
Requesting capabilities of SageSession
login
QFSFileEngine::open: No file name specified
error opening keywords.xml file. highlighting and completion won't work
evaluating:  "__cantor_enable_typesetting(true)"
evaluating  "__cantor_enable_typesetting(true)"
wsStatusChange 0
out:  "â\u0094\u008Câ\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0090\r\nâ\u0094\u0082 SageMath version 7.4, Release Date: 2016-10-18                     â\u0094\u0082\r\nâ\u0094\u0082 Type \"notebook()\" for the browser-based notebook interface.        â\u0094\u0082\r\nâ\u0094\u0082 Type \"help()\" for help.                                            â\u0094\u0082\r\nâ\u0094\u0094â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0080â\u0094\u0098\r\n"
found version:  ("\u0094\u0082 SageMath version 7.4", "n", "7", "4")
using an old version of sage:  0 . 7 . Using the old init command
[.. similar output several more times ..]

After this is fixed, it would be good to Recommends: sagemath and drop the part in the description that says "sagemath is not available in Debian".

X

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-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'testing-debug'), (300, 'unstable'), (200, 'experimental'), (1, 'experimental-debug')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.8.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)