Re: [gentoo-dev] category sci-geosciences redundant ?

[Stephen P. Becker]

Andrew D. Fant wrote:
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> Mike Frysinger wrote:
> | is it just me or does it seem redundant to have 'sciences' at the end
> of a
> | sci-* category ?  wouldnt it make more sense as just 'sci-geo' ?
>
> Would sci-geo be geography or geology or geosciences?
>
> Andy
>
>

I just figure I should throw my two cents into this thread.  Looking at 
the packages in app-geosciences, I have a hard time seeing why the 
category exists at all.  Two of the packages are meteorology, which is 
definitely a big stretch.  I'm not sure you'll find very many university 
or college geoscience departments around the country that have a 
meteorology major for example.

A third package is for making maps, called GMT, which can have numerous 
applications (including geosciences), but doesn't *have* to be 
geoscience specific.  I quote from their homepage, "Most users of GMT 
are Earth scientists, but there are apparently no limits to the kind of 
applications that may benefit from GMT: We know GMT is used in medical 
research, engineering, physics, mathematics, social and biological 
sciences, and by geographers, fisheries institutes, oil companies, and a 
wide range of government agencies."  That said, I could live with this 
package staying in app-geosciences.

Finally, the GIS program, called grass, which is very useful in 
geosciences as well, also doesn't have to be geoscience specific.  In 
fact, GIS stands for "geographic information system".  This could also 
stay in app-geosciences.

So, by my count, that is two packages which you could make a case for 
staying in this category, which is silly.  Do we really need a whole 
category for two ebuilds?  Anyway, what I mean by all of this is that 
yes, sci-geo would be more ambiguous, but it would be a hell of a lot 
better than the current name since it would branch out over more 
subjects...sci-geosciences is pretty specific.  I would expect to find 
geochemical modeling software (like GEMS for aqueous geochemistry: 
http://les.web.psi.ch/Software/GEMS-PSI/index.html, and MELTS for 
magmatic systems: http://penmelts.ess.washington.edu/index.html), 
seismic data processing software (http://chez.mana.pf/~ldg/), etc in 
this category, and none of that exists.  Note that I'm not whining or 
complaining that software like this isn't in portage, just that it is 
the sort of thing I (being a geologist) would expect to see in a 
category called app-geosciences.

Steve

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