Re: Physicalconstants package from Octave-Forge is outdated

[Thomas Weber]

On Sat, Apr 09, 2011 at 06:36:48PM -0300, Pablo wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>   I just found out that the Physical Constants package from
> Octave-Forge was removed from Debian testing. The reason was that the
> values from the NIST database were outdated (see
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=620639). As the
> report states, "The
> latest update to that database is from 2006. Despite that, the package
> still ships the values from 2002." I checked and that's true (you can
> see, for example, the gravitational constant).

Actually, the reason is "no one cares for it upstream." The fact that it
ships outdated values just follows from that.

>   Is it possible to update the package? Supposedly, the package is
> automatically generated so it shouldn't be a big deal. By the way, the
> generating script is not included in the package. I believe it should
> be accessible just in case the original creator is unavailable.

The generating Python script is in the SVN repository. I don't know how
much work generating the corresponding .m file is. Personally, I'd
prefer if this one .m file would just be put into the 'miscellaneous'
package - I don't foresee NIST update more often than once every few
years, so the occasional relesaed miscellaneous package should suffice.

        Thomas