[AstroPy] astropy in Debian, Scientific Linux?

[James Turner]

> In my opinion the best idea is to create a petition. It seems my mail wasn't
> very effective

+1. Individuals whining obviously aren't going to get anywhere.
It needs to be made clear to the IAU that it isn't serving the
best interests of its community and that the future of progress
in data processing is in open source.

The other thing would be to persuade a different part of IAU to
take up the cause, eg. SOFA comes under division A (fundamental
astronomy) whereas data science is division B. This discussion
should be driven by top-level considerations as to what
astronomers need, not theoretical logistical concerns. It won't
matter what people think of SOFA if no-one uses it -- and as
someone (Sergio?) mentioned, it's worth pointing out the anomaly
that anyone can write software that appears to be the original
SOFA as long as it *isn't* (and therefore bound by their
licence), rendering the naming restrictions fairly pointless.

Anyone here a member? I spot only a handful of people I know
under their division listings.

Cheers,

James.


> 2013/4/8 Tom Aldcroft <aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu
> <mailto:aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu>>
>
>     Sergio,
>
>     I wonder if it might be worth trying again with SOFA.  Things are a
>     little different now since at this point there are real users that are
>     unable to use our (and their) software because of their license.  This
>     is very frustrating.
>
>     I wonder if we could organize a petition in support of modifying the
>     SOFA license to something more consistent with typical community
>     standards.  I mean the IAU is supposed to be representing and
>     benefiting astronomers, no?
>
>     Thanks,
>     Tom
>
>
>
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