Bug#286656: acknowledged by developer (Re: java-package: Could be merged with alien?)

[Andrew Ferrier]

Jan, I understand that there changes one would need to make upon
conversion. However, doesn't alien's /usr/share/alien/patches mechanism
provide what you would need? Or perhaps an automated mechanism to
generate those patches, which java-package could provide?

Understand I'm not trying to encourage you to throw away all of
java-package, I'm merely trying to see if there's a better way to
provide a consistent interface to the user and reduce maintainence for
you.

Thanks,
Andrew.

On 2005-01-03 at 11:48 -0800, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:

> This is an automatic notification regarding your Bug report
> #286656: java-package: Could be merged with alien?,
> which was filed against the java-package package.
> 
> It has been closed by one of the developers, namely
> Jeroen van Wolffelaar <jeroen@wolffelaar.nl>.
> 
> Their explanation is attached below.  If this explanation is
> unsatisfactory and you have not received a better one in a separate
> message then please contact the developer, by replying to this email.
> 
> Debian bug tracking system administrator
> (administrator, Debian Bugs database)
> 
> Received: (at 286656-done) by bugs.debian.org; 3 Jan 2005 19:39:05 +0000
> >From jeroen@wolffelaar.nl Mon Jan 03 11:39:05 2005
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> Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 20:39:04 +0100
> To: Andrew Ferrier <andrew@new-destiny.co.uk>
> Cc: Debian Bug Tracking System <286656-done@bugs.debian.org>
> Subject: Re: java-package: Could be merged with alien?
> Message-ID: <20050103193904.GA29355@wolffelaar.nl>
> References: <E1CghTA-0006Ca-0H@tracey.hursley.ibm.com>
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> From: Jeroen van Wolffelaar <jeroen@wolffelaar.nl>
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> 
> On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 10:42:19AM +0000, Andrew Ferrier wrote:
> > java-package is a very useful tool. However, what it does seems to be
> > very similar to alien, except in a specific domain (i.e. Java). Would
> > it not be of benefit to both projects to merge the knowledge of
> > make-jpkg into alien? Just a suggestion.
> 
> I understand your reasoning, however, for a few reasons this is
> unfortuantely not possible:
> 
> alien is a generic conversion tool for package formats, but this package
> needs extra logic: the packages are not really standard, but include
> some random scripts by sun, the version numbers are not sequential
> according to Debian policy, and most importantly, java-package adds
> packaging 'glue' so that the generated packages are like debian
> packages, with all the integration in browsers etc. It also has a
> dependency relationship with a separate support package so that one
> notices while using apt or similar that one's java package is outdated
> and a newer one is available.
> 
> I hope this sufficiently explains why your suggestion is impossible to
> implement.
> 
> Thanks for thinking with us!
> 
> --Jeroen
>  
> -- 
> Jeroen van Wolffelaar
> jeroen@wolffelaar.nl
> http://jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl
> 
> 

-- 
Andrew Ferrier

mobile:  +44 (0) 7968 147953
web:     http://www.new-destiny.co.uk/andrew/
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