On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 2:16 PM, Andreas Tille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Mon, 25 Feb 2008, Sylvestre Ledru wrote: > > > This group could take inspiration from pkg-scicomp or debian-med to > > create his own policy (goals are very similar to pkg-scicomp). > > I'm a little bit concerned about the nomen est omen _pkg_-science > and _pkg_scicomp. IMHO we need more than just packaging random > scientific software. What Debian-Med does and what a CDD really > makes is forming a community around the software in the focused area, > try to teach them, building a network of cooperatioen etc. It is not > only a technical thing like pure packaging. It is about making > Debian the distribution of choice for scientists.
Well said. I have been suggesting this for years. I believe the scientific method is generally thought to include "verifiability" and particularly "reproducibility" as criteria for a well-performed experiment. Experimental computer science, algorithmic, or machine learning results are fairly baseless unless accompanied by open source software. Therefore, I have claimed for years that all honest experimental computer scientists should make a point to determine the most standard way to offer their source code to the world, and follow that convention. I think at first this meant autoconf and automake for me, but as I tried Slackware, RedHat, and Debian, I found out that Debian performed the best (in terms of maintainability and reliability with controlled circumstances) in the longer (multi-year) term. So I moved from spec files to debian directories and have never regretted it. I now write emails encouraging other scientists along these same lines, to remember our scientific credo that is ostensibly supposed to include the scientific method. I see it as part of the 'open science' movement [1]. Cheers, Rudi [1]: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=886906 > > Kind regards > > Andreas, > > -- > http://fam-tille.de > > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- Which is worse, ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares? --Erich Schubert -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
