Re: bsd-games--one package or many?

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>]

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003, Aaron V. Humphrey wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I'm fairly new to cygwin-apps, but I've been lurking on the main cygwin
> list for a few months.  Subscribed to the digest, so it never seems
> worth actually replying to anything, which is probably all to the good.
>
> I've been considering porting bsd-games to Cygwin, and recently managed
> to stop considering and actually do something about it.  I've gotten the
> code to compile, though sometimes only by commenting out things like
> flock() calls(fcntl() research is still forthcoming).  I also managed to
> link in err.c through a somewhat hamhanded approach that I'm not happy
> with.  I think I've also managed to track the code to its upstream
> source.
>
> It has occurred to me, though, to wonder whether bsd-games would be best
> done as a single monolithic package, or as a number of smaller packages,
> per game or the like.
>
> If it was a single package, then it would take up less space on the
> packages list, and it would be easier to synch it up with release numbers
> from sites like Debian.  It's also a group of programs that traditionally
> go together.
>
> On the other hand, three of the programs(wtf, fortune, and robots)have
> already been released as separate packages.  If a bsd-games package was
> then added, should they be merged in?  Left out?  Added as dependencies?
>
> Some of the programs are ncurses-dependent, and some are not.  "factor"
> can be built to depend on openssh(?) to use its factoring routines, but
> I'd hesitate to make the whole package dependent on that.  Some of the
> programs are not really game-like("number", for instance).
>
> I know that Debian has also split up the package because of licensing
> uncertainties; I think only "rogue" is on the bsd-games-nonfree package,
> but I think there are others that have been left out of the packages
> entirely because of unclear licensing.  I don't know if that's an issue
> for Cygwin.
>
> I also harbour some doubts about the legality of propagating "monop", for
> example, which is surely trademarked or copyrighted or something by the
> makes of the Monopoly boardgame.
>
> Also, if it's done as smaller packages, it'd be easier for me as a
> first-time packager, and I'd be able to get something ready to release
> more quickly.
>
> So I'm leaning towards multiple packages, but I'd like to get opinions
> from others before I commit to it.
>
> One thing that I also wondered about was "words", as in
> "/usr{/share}/dict/words".  Wordlists are required for "hangman" and
> "boggle", at least, and as far as I can tell aren't available in the
> Cygwin installation anywhere.  Is that another package people might be
> interested in?  If I can find a wordlist I'm happy with, anyway...

Aaron,

I can't really speak for "fortune" and "robots", but I know that the "wtf"
package is a completely independent implementation, unrelated to BSD.
Also, since you mentioned "rogue", I have a port of Angband to both
Cygwin/ncurses and Cygwin/X, and was planning to package and release it,
so "rogue" might be outclassed shortly.

Many here think it's a good idea to have more games and toys in Cygwin,
though, so if you have things like "hangman" and "boggle", they would
certainly be welcome.  I believe it might be good to release them as
separate packages, all in the "Games" category.  If you don't want to bog
yourself down with so many packages, you could group them into, say, a
"word-games" package.  Setup also allows "external-source:"
specifications, so you could build multiple packages from the same source
tarball.
	Igor
-- 
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