Optional package for gap3

[sagetrac-mrobado]

Here is a (new) spkg which contains Jean Michel's "pre-packaged GAP3 with everything you need". From his webpage:

To help people who are just interested in GAP3 because they need a package which has not been ported to GAP4, I have prepared an easy-to install minimal GAP3 distribution containing an up-to-date versions of the packages:

anusq, arep, autag, chevie, cryst, dce, grim, matrix, meataxe, monoid, nq, pcqa, sisyphos, specht, ve, vkcurve.

These packages have been chosen since most have no equivalent in GAP4. They are autoloaded when starting gap.This distribution includes only partial lists of small groups, 2-groups, 3-groups, character tables from the Atlas and tables of marks. It does not include either the packages:

anupq, grape, kbmag, xgap, cohomolo, gliss, guava, xmod

which have some equivalent in GAP4. You can get these extra features at

http://www.math.rwth-aachen.de/~Frank.Luebeck/gap/GAP3

Here is a link to the corresponding upstream tarball:

http://webusers.imj-prg.fr/~jean.michel/gap3/gap3-jm5.tar.gz

CC: @burcin @AndrewAtLarge

Component: packages: optional

Keywords: gap3

Author: Jean Michel, Marco Robado, Franco Saliola, Nicolas M. Thiéry

Branch: 0defcc1

Reviewer: Burcin Erocal, Christian Stump

Issue created by migration from https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/8906

[burcin]

Reviewer: Burcin Erocal

[burcin]

comment:1

Thanks a lot for the package, and a good example of how to write spkg-install in Python.

Here are a few comments:

• Version numbers for the GAP4 package are of the form gap-4.4.10.p17, so we should name this gap.3.4.4.p0 and keep increasing the "patch level" at the end for updates.
• The package has a single mercurial repository at the top, which contains spkg-install, SPKG.txt, etc. and the GAP3 source files. The convention is to keep two separate repositories, one with only "packaging" material, spkg-install and so on, another one to track changes to the upstream sources.
• Does GAP3 have a test suite? Can we add an spkg-check which runs this? Another option is to copy the spkg-check which just tries to start GAP from the spkg mentioned in #8380 comment:9.
• SPKG.txt should be based on the template here: http://wiki.sagemath.org/spkgTemplate
  In particular:
  • the changelog should have an entry conforming to the standard
  • TODO list (in the file TODO) should be moved in the SPKG.txt
  • There should be an explanation of what changes were made to the upstream sources, even though they are already documented in the mercurial repository log.
  • SPKG.txt should note that src/bin/gap.sh hardcodes version gap3r4p4 in the GAP_DIR variable
• I don't see why these lines at the end of spkg-install are necessary:

if not os.path.exists(gap3_base):
    os.makedirs(gap3_base)

[sagetrac-mrobado]

comment:2

I uploaded a new version of the package with the issues fixed at this address http://thales.math.uqam.ca/~robado/gap-3.4.4.p0.spkg . Maybe we should merge this package with the one posted on #8380.

[burcin]

comment:3

I don't know what the exact requirements for an optional package are. Especially the difference between an optional and an experimental package is not clear to me. I can't find them anywhere in the documentation either.

The package at http://thales.math.uqam.ca/~robado/gap-3.4.4.p0.spkg looks good to me, switching to positive review. :)

[sagetrac-mvngu]

comment:4

Some problems with gap-3.4.4.p0.spkg:

1. All changes have not been checked in:

[mvngu@sage gap-3.4.4.p0]$ hg status
M SPKG.txt
? spkg-check

You must check in all changes.

1. The license file COPYING needs to go under the directory src/.
2. The directory src/ contains one package within another:

[mvngu@sage src]$ pwd
/home/mvngu/spkg/optional/gap/gap-3.4.4.p0/src
[mvngu@sage src]$ ls
bin            description12  description4  description8  grp  sml  tom
description1   description13  description5  description9  htm  src  tst
description10  description2   description6  doc           lib  tbl  two
description11  description3   description7  etc           pkg  thr  utl
[mvngu@sage src]$ ls src
agcollec.c     description12  function.c     pcpresen.c  record.h    tietze.h
agcollec.h     description13  function.h     pcpresen.h  scanner.c   tom
aggroup.c      description2   gap.c          permutat.c  scanner.h   tst
aggroup.h      description3   gasman.c       permutat.h  set.c       two
bin            description4   gasman.h       pkg         set.h       unknown.c
blister.c      description5   grp            plist.c     sml         unknown.h
blister.h      description6   htm            plist.h     src         utl
coding.c       description7   idents.c       polynom.c   statemen.c  vecffe.c
coding.h       description8   idents.h       polynom.h   statemen.h  vecffe.h
costab.c       description9   integer.c      range.c     string.c    vector.c
costab.h       doc            integer.h      range.h     string.h    vector.h
cyclotom.c     etc            lib            rational.c  system.c    word.c
cyclotom.h     eval.c         list.c         rational.h  system.h    word.h
description1   eval.h         list.h         read.c      tbl
description10  finfield.c     Makefile       read.h      thr
description11  finfield.h     Makefile.orig  record.c    tietze.c

1. You don't have any patches on top of the upstream GAP 3 package, so you need to start the spkg numbering at gap-3.4.4.spkg, not at gap-3.4.4.p0.spkg. The name gap-3.4.4.p0.spkg implies that you have a patch to be applied on top of the upstream GAP 3 package. See this chapter Producing New Sage Packages and chapter Patching a Sage Package of the Developer's Guide.