Your message dated Sat, 24 Feb 2007 14:10:20 +0000
with message-id <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
and subject line Bug#377333: fixed in lp-solve 5.5.0.10-1
has caused the attached Bug report to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what I am
talking about this indicates a serious mail system misconfiguration
somewhere. Please contact me immediately.)
Debian bug tracking system administrator
(administrator, Debian Bugs database)
--- Begin Message ---
Package: lp-solve
Version: 5.5-2
Severity: important
Hi,
I've recently installed both lp-solve and liblpsolve55-dev, in the hope
that I can use them in some mathematics work that I am doing.
Unfortunately I can find no documentation at all in either of these
packages that shows me how to use them.
For lp-solve, all there is is a README.txt.gz that discusses features
but no actual instructions on how to use the program lp_solve. There is
no manpage either. The best I could get was the output from "lp_solve
--help", which gives a flood of command-line options but still leaves
out critical information such as what needs to go in the input file.
For liblpsolve55-dev, the only documentation seems to be a single
example file (demo.c). Whilst this gives hints at how to use the
library, it still basically leaves the programmer guessing at the finer
details, which from a programming point of view is somewhat dangerous
(are there any constraints? preconditions? limitations?). The headers
themselves contain almost no information of this sort either.
In my opinion, software of this nature desperately needs some form of
information for both the casual user (lp-solve) and the programmer
(liblpsolve55-dev). Otherwise you are more or less left guessing; even
if you do manage to fumble your way around and get some results, you
cannot rely on them because you don't know whether you've used the
program/library correctly or not.
(It is for this reason that I've filed this bug as important: "a bug
which has a major effect on the usability of a package, without
rendering it completely unusable to everyone".)
I presume there is documentation available -- the lp-solve README.txt.gz
refers to "full source, examples and manuals", asks the reader to "See
the reference guide for more information", and in fact speaks of the
documentation more precisely: "The html files are also in
lp_solve_5.5_doc.tar.gz. Start with index.htm ... Also see
http://lpsolve.sourceforge.net/ for a on-line documentation".
For online users, this is inconvenient (having to locate and download
the docs separately); for offline users this is impossible.
My suggestion here would be to bundle up this documentation and either
include it with lp-solve or as a separate lp-solve-doc package, and if
you use a separate package then make a note in README.Debian for both
the lp-solve and liblpsolve55-dev packages so users know where to find it.
I would also suggest restoring the lp_solve.1 manpage; looking at the
debian changelogs, it seems there was a manpage some time in the past;
it would be useful if this could be included again (and presumably
updated where appropriate).
Anyway, that's all from me. It does look like a useful package; it's
just unfortunate that (unlike your typical GUI tool or self-documenting
proglet) it's more or less impossible for the average user to guess
their way through the system based on what debian is currently shipping.
Many thanks,
Ben.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-2-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Versions of packages lp-solve depends on:
ii libc6 2.3.6-15 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libufsparse 1.2-6 collection of libraries for comput
lp-solve recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Source: lp-solve
Source-Version: 5.5.0.10-1
We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
lp-solve, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:
liblpsolve55-dev_5.5.0.10-1_i386.deb
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/liblpsolve55-dev_5.5.0.10-1_i386.deb
liblpsolve55-dev_5.5.0.10-1_powerpc.deb
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/liblpsolve55-dev_5.5.0.10-1_powerpc.deb
lp-solve-doc_5.5.0.10-1_all.deb
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/lp-solve-doc_5.5.0.10-1_all.deb
lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1.diff.gz
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1.diff.gz
lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1.dsc
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1.dsc
lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1_i386.deb
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1_i386.deb
lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1_powerpc.deb
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1_powerpc.deb
lp-solve_5.5.0.10.orig.tar.gz
to pool/main/l/lp-solve/lp-solve_5.5.0.10.orig.tar.gz
A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.
Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you
have further comments please address them to [EMAIL PROTECTED],
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.
Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Rene Engelhard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (supplier of updated lp-solve package)
(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing [EMAIL PROTECTED])
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Format: 1.7
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:50:07 +0100
Source: lp-solve
Binary: liblpsolve55-dev lp-solve lp-solve-doc
Architecture: all i386 powerpc source
Version: 5.5.0.10-1
Distribution: experimental
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Juan Esteban Monsalve Tobon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Changed-By: Rene Engelhard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Description:
liblpsolve55-dev - Solve (mixed integer) linear programming problems - library
lp-solve - Solve (mixed integer) linear programming problems
lp-solve-doc - Solve (mixed integer) linear programming problems -
documentation
Closes: 377333
Changes:
lp-solve (5.5.0.10-1) experimental; urgency=low
.
* New upstream release
* add documentation from lpsolve.sourceforge.net/5.5
(closes: #377333); remove images, though (diff...) and
link them to the online version to prevent needing uu* them
* install liblpsolve55.so into /usr/lib/lp_solve, because it might
be needed by additional stuff
* link lp_solve against liblpsolve55.so
Files:
26b3e95ddf3d9c077c480ea45874b3b8 769268 math optional
lp-solve_5.5.0.10.orig.tar.gz
54a1b129db89d7e4731025638232bef1 296212 math optional
lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1_i386.deb
55e7b09fce52d4ec17e42b112f66a425 744270 libdevel optional
liblpsolve55-dev_5.5.0.10-1_powerpc.deb
39e17efa1c803bcf0e77e6f5070b48ab 730 math optional lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1.dsc
772496b7e4f96a0bc159105ee46f88a1 335590 doc optional
lp-solve-doc_5.5.0.10-1_all.deb
799290be941f038eacf4956f1026329d 310752 math optional
lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1_powerpc.deb
a9d181becc3af39377fdb4ced126060c 698740 libdevel optional
liblpsolve55-dev_5.5.0.10-1_i386.deb
bff2881ba8986fbe5b27ae60823bb542 312531 math optional
lp-solve_5.5.0.10-1.diff.gz
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFFu5su+FmQsCSK63MRAj6aAJoDwBv3CT0k5Fzsm+aHowCUV9IM6QCfaC7K
CzxGn+PcXmRJt6zutzTkTpQ=
=Djml
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--- End Message ---
