Bug#288959: ITP: mn-fit -- interactive analysis package for fitting data and histograms

[Kevin McCarty]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist

* Package name: mn-fit
  Version : 5.03
  Upstream Author : Ian C. Brock 
* URL : http://www-zeus.physik.uni-bonn.de/~brock/mn_fit.html
* License : GPL
  Description : interactive analysis package for fitting data and histograms

Mn_Fit can perform a wide variety of mathematical fits and analyses on data
or histograms read in from a file.  The program is interactive with a
graphical display, so it is easy for the user to explore different fits
while viewing the results.  Many functions are built into the package, and
new ones can be added.

Some capabilities of Mn_Fit include built-in maximum likelihood fits,
fitting of 1-D and 2-D histograms, fitting several histograms
simultaneously, applying constraints on function parameters, and limited
use of Monte Carlo statistics.  The program can produce PostScript output
of a quality suitable for publication.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-powerpc
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

-- 
Kevin B. McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>   Physics Department
WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/Princeton University
GPG public key ID: 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544

Bug#290362: www.debian.org: Please add Root to list of programs that cannot be packaged

[Kevin McCarty]

Package: www.debian.org
Severity: wishlist

Hello,

Could someone please add Root (http://root.cern.ch/) to the list of software
that cannot be packaged, http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/unable-to-package
?  There have been several attempts at ITPs:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/1999/12/msg9.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/01/msg00278.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2004/12/msg00278.html

There are two problems: first, the license [1] forbids redistribution of
modified binaries without permission of the authors, which some have argued
makes it unsuitable even for non-free [2]; second, and worse, the software
contains what appears to be code derived from cernlib (GPL) [3] and Xclass
(LGPL) [4] while having a license incompatible with either.

[1] http://root.cern.ch/root/License.html
[2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/01/msg00297.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/01/msg00281.html
[3] http://cernlib.web.cern.ch/cernlib/conditions.html
[4] http://xclass.sourceforge.net/

This is most unfortunate, since Root is a very useful tool and a number of
interesting projects are based on it, but I don't see how Debian can
legally package it, even in non-free, until upstream changes their license.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.9-powerpc
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

regards,

-- 
Kevin B. McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>   Physics Department
WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/Princeton University
GPG public key ID: 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]