Bug#869135: Please don't adopt giza for libpgplot-perl

[Karl Glazebrook]

Hi there,

I want to bring up an issue with the perl/PGPLOT package on Debian/Ubuntu. The relevant apt package is ‘libpgplot-perl’. (This came up when I was installing PDL on Ubuntu and getting an unexpected graphics library instead of pgplot.)
 
In short, in the latest version of Ubuntu (>=17)  the dependency on the pgplot5 package has been replaced with one on libcpgplot0. See https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=pgplot <https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=pgplot>
 
libcpgplot0 replaces the true pgplot library with a supposedly API compatible library provided by the giza package (see http://giza.sourceforge.net/documentation/pgplot.shtml <http://giza.sourceforge.net/documentation/pgplot.shtml>). I can imagine that it was thought that this was a good idea as it is newer, C based, etc.
 
While it is great to see this active development I do not think this has been handled in quite the best way. Giza is not a 100% pgplot API replacement, as yet. I am actually quite familiar with giza and have played with it. The giza library does NOT implement all pgplot functions and some of them work differently to the true pgplot library. (I know as I have tested this and have also corresponded with the developers who are also astronomers just down the road from at Monash Uni).This is clearly documented on the above web page and is an important issue for those of us who rely on pgplot for legacy code.
 
Also I do not think it should be done this way in principle. Obviously giza provides a drop in libpgplot replacement for those who wants to use it, so  how it should work is to make a ‘libpgplotgiza-perl’ instead to provide the option FOR THOSE WHO WISH TOO.
 
(I wish someone had asked me before making this change, after all I am the owner still of the CPAN perl/PGPLOT package whose functionality this is providing.)
 
I would like to get this revered. It is quite unclear to me who is making these decisions, I am not familiar with the Debian packaging universe. I was told by emailing here I could reopen this issue

thank you,
 
Karl Glazebrook

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