Bug#548885: iaxmodem: contains embedded code copies of liabiax and spandsp

[Faidon Liambotis]

Julien BLACHE wrote:
> libiax:
>  - libiax in Debian is the pristine upstream version released by Digium
>  - it's unmaintained
>  - it's wayyyy behind
>  - it's not used by anybody inside or outside of Debian
>  - it's basically documenting the protocol (though it's becoming outdated)
>  - we should RM it anyway, it's halfway done
>  - everybody's rolling its own, there are like 4 or 5 diverging
>    versions in the wild
>  - no, don't even think of merging everything back into one version,
>    it's been tried, repeatedly, over the years and failed every single
>    time
> 
> spandsp:
>  - iaxmodem needs more from spandsp than the public API can give it
>  - it doesn't fit into spandsp's API nicely
>  - there are hotfixes intended for fax use only
>  - spandsp in iaxmodem has been tested and verified to work 100%
>  - testing iaxmodem takes days, heaps of crappy hardware and hundreds
>    of MB of fax captures
>  - iaxmodem's and spandsp's authors know each other well and work
>    together, what's added to spandsp in iaxmodem eventually makes its
>    way into spandsp, though not all of it yet
>  - iaxmodem should be able to use upstream spandsp at some point in
>    the future, but that's long term
I was aware of a couple of those points but didn't know the whole
picture. Thanks for the detailed explanation -- and FWIW, your decision
sounds reasonable.

Regards,
Faidon