[Debichem-devel] p4VASP packaging

[Michael Banck]

Dear Graham,

On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 11:44:28AM +0200, Graham Inggs wrote:
> I have been working on a Debian packaging of p4VASP [1], a
> visualization suite for the Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package [2].
 
Cool!

I had a look at its website and while it looks a bit unpolished (doesn't
blend in to any desktop environment, e.g.), it seems to be really useful
for VASP users.

In general, I would like to see a more integrated approach, e.g.
Avogadro taking over most of those specialized single-application apps,
but VASP is such an important program in the field that a dedicated
package is warranted IMO.

> I have filed an ITP bug [3] and my packaging attempt is currently in
> collab-maint on Alioth [4].

I had a look now.  I think it might be useful to split it up into a
python module which appears to be useful in general, e.g. to
parse/generate VASP input/output, and the GUI app, the latter likely
needing the python modules?

> I am wondering whether DebiChem should be the home for this package,
> and where I can get some guidance on packaging (in particular,
> splitting off the rather large API documentation which is not required
> for normal use) and whether there are any specific requirements for
> DebiChem.

I think it fits very well into DebiChem. Apart from the above comment,
if the API documentation is specific to the python interface, then it
probably makes sense to ship it with a possible python-p4vasp package.
If there is tons of data files and other user-oriented documentation,
one can think about a dedicated p4vasp-doc or p4vasp-data package.
 
> As noted on the p4vasp site, upstream a working on a small new release
> which should be finished soon.  I would like to upload p4vasp to
> Debian soon after that.

The next step would be to add you to the Alioth Debichem project.  Then,
you can import the packaging into the Debichem git (but if you prefer to
keep it on collab-maint, I don't object).

I will have a closer look at p4vasp later on, but I have to run errands
now and just wanted to give a quick feedback.


Cheers,

Michael