[Pkg-haskell-maintainers] Bug#679596: libghc-github-prof: Should be in contrib

[shawn]

On Sat, 2012-06-30 at 19:54 -0400, Joey Hess wrote: 
> Joey Hess wrote:
> > <http://lists.debian.org/20111204195557.GA11437@gnu.kitenet.net>
> 
> This seemed a good opportunity to expand that into a BoF, so I've
> submitted this: https://penta.debconf.org/penta/submission/dc12/event/931
> 
>     classifying and exposing network dependencies
> 
>     Does youtube-dl belong in contrib if it depends on Youtube.com to
>     function? What about xfce4-weather-plugin, with its less obvious
>     dependency on a hardcoded Weather.com API key? What about flickrbackup,
>     which obviously relies on a specific web site, but in a way that helps
>     users avoid being locked into that site?

is this still the case, because if so, I would be happy to switch it
over to using weather.gov and/or some other NOAA source directly for US
weather. (this is the source for 99.9% of US weather data anyways) 
> 
>     A first step to resolving these questions is agreeing on package (or
>     debtags) metadata that exposes network API dependencies, and classifies
>     them along a spectrum from no dependence on specific servers, through
>     default servers for open protocols, to dependency on proprietary
>     services.
> 
The "reimplamentation of the github API" argument you put forward just
doesn't pan out. Sure I could re-implement the windows API too, (and
Wine does so), but that doesn't mean that free windows software that
DOESN'T work with wine could just be put in main willy-nilly.

The desert Island test here is certainly the clearest here, if the
software requires non-free software in order to be functional it belongs
in contrib.


-- 
-Shawn Landden