On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 09:45:05PM -0800, Dave wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Nov 2002 brook@biology.nmsu.edu wrote:
> 
> > Alistair Crooks writes:
> >  > On Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 01:03:08AM +1030, wulf@ping.net.au wrote:
> >  > > I've been porting several GIS applications such as proj4, shapelibs, mapserv,
> >  > > gpsd etc with several others to follow and hence would like to create
> >  > > a new category "pkgsrc/gis" that accommodate this type of application - see
> >  > > http://www.freegis.org for more information on GIS.
> >  > > 
> >  > > Are there any objections in creating this new category? 
> >  > 
> >  > Usually we just put them into the bucket categories - misc, devel - until we
> >  > get a critical mass for a new category - I'd encourage you to do the same here.
> > 
> > I would like to suggest that indeed "gis" would be a valuable new
> > category.  I, for example, have long wanted one and have made some
> > packages for my own use that would fit into such a category.  There is
> > a rather large amount of software relating to GIS, much of which is
> > organized at www.freegis.org.  Because there is a useful reference
> > site it would be relatively easy to track down the critical mass.
> > 
> > Perhaps creating the category and starting to fill it would serve as a
> > catalyst and would enable NetBSD to be used as a general GIS platform.
> > That would be a very valuable thing, actually.
> 
> Furthermore, it would be very helpful for sysadmins of shops that run,
> say, Solaris and Irix for their GIS needs; especially given the recent
> announcement of a hopefully soon-to-be-official patch to bootstrap pkgsrc
> on Irix.  While shops like this will typically use big packages like
> Landmark Openworks, Schlumberger GeoQuest, and so on, having more stuff
> available in pkgsrc (without having to poke through pkgsrc/misc) will be
> very good.

One of the things we can do is have a "virtual category" where we put
gis as another of the CATEGORIES in the package Makefile.  This gives
you something to search for when trawling through the misc category. 
Sure, I know this isn't ideal, but I'd like to know that packages are
going to be maintained when they're added to pkgsrc.

Regards,
Alistair