Weekly Edition
Return to the Distributions page
| |||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
How Debian packages a number
Debian developer Josselin Mouette recently posted an intent to
package notification for a useful-seeming library package:
This package contains the "09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0"
number. It is a very cool number, which, among other things, can be
used by a wide range of HD-DVD deciphering applications.
A small library is provided to access this number in applications. The get_09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 C function returns a pointer to a 16-byte structure containing this number. Now, it's hard to argue with centralizing access to useful resources, and one would think that the creation of such a package would be a simple task. The response from the Debian community makes it clear that even simple-seeming tasks can be difficult, though. For starters, what happens when upstream releases a new version of the number? It appears necessary to add a separate version number to the library name. Another helpful developer pointed out the need for a command-line utility to obtain the number from scripts and such. Then there's the matter of bindings for Ruby, Perl, Python, and Lua, each of which would need a separate package. Even that's not enough, though, since the number in question is seen to be architecture-independent, and thus requiring a package separate from the library which uses it. Others pointed out that, now that Java is free, a Java binding will be required as well. Then there's the matter of GUI tools for GNOME, KDE, and XFCE. As of this writing, the Debian developers were beginning to grapple with the need for a full set of translations and setting up a special internationalization mailing list for this package. All of this attention to detail and universal support demonstrates how Debian has become such a comprehensive, well-integrated distribution. Look for the upcoming "Lenny" release to have the best l33t h4x0r numb3r of any distributor out there. (Log in to post comments)
How Debian packages a number Posted May 10, 2007 4:53 UTC (Thu) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link] I wonder who is 39 days late with this, Debian or our Grumpy Editor. But I like it :-)
How Debian packages a number Posted May 10, 2007 9:36 UTC (Thu) by xav (subscriber, #18536) [Link] Looking at the 1st-post's datestamp, it looks like Debian was a month late.
Well, wait .. did I say Debian was *only* a month late ?
How Debian packages a number Posted May 11, 2007 4:20 UTC (Fri) by dw (subscriber, #12017) [Link] 39 days? This number dates back to at least February. :)
Number is eternal Posted May 14, 2007 7:22 UTC (Mon) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] All that happened in February was that the attention of the technical public was inexorably drawn to its representation in hexadecimal.
The number has always existed -- look back at your old mathematics text books and check the definition of the set of natural numbers. It's there!
How Debian packages a number Posted May 11, 2007 19:32 UTC (Fri) by utoddl (subscriber, #1232) [Link] If anybody needs it, here's a link that will give you "The Number" as a Code-39 bar code: http://tarna.oit.unc.edu/cgi-bin/utoddl/barcode/bc.pl?number=09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0. How to package that for Debian is left as an exercise for the reader.
How Debian packages a number Posted May 18, 2007 1:54 UTC (Fri) by csoh (guest, #39470) [Link] As a debian user, I'm all for that library. On the other hand, this sound like a bulb joke, though.
|
|
||||||||||||