Scientific Software Packaging Feedback

Purpose? We at Kachina Technologies, Inc. are very excited about the tremendously increasing popularity of our SAL (Scientific Application on Linux) web site. Based on encouraging user feedbacks, we want to go the extra mile to provide more services to the Linux and the Scientific and Engineering communities.

What is SAL? SAL (Scientific Applications on Linux) web sites collect thousands of software links for scientists, engineers, and Linux ethusiasts. There is no doubt that SAL has become one of the most important, popular, and exciting software resources for the Linux and UNIX community. SAL was developed by Dr. Herng-Jeng Jou, along with many others at Kachina Technologies, Inc. While most system/network level applications are packaged by Linux distributors and provided on their CD-ROM distributions, most commonly used free scientific packages are still provided in source code format. Although many users contributed packages which are often found in /contrib directories on Linux distributors' FTP sites, lack of version tracking and centralized control hinder the appreciation of these individual efforts. We are facinated by the team work and coordination of GNU/Debian Linux people and want to pursue the same goal in software packaging for the Scientific and Engineering community. Our initial goal is to archive Debian (.deb), RedHat (.rpm), and simple binary tree (.tgz) used by many distributions including the popular Slackware distribution. At the same time, SAL's website will function as a repository and users can download the packages and install them on their systems immediately. However, we'd like to listen to your opinions on the best policies and procedures to get this job done correctly. Please tell us what scientific and engineering software (those with free source codes that are available of course) you would like to see packaged. Please email us at sal@kachinatech.com and simply include: 1. Software name(s) 2. Preferred packaging format (RPM, DEB, or others) Although this is just a survey, we are quite serious and excited about doing this. The established packages will be available through SAL.

Currently, there are more than 20 SAL sites installed worldwide, and their URLs are listed here. We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions. Please send your messages (including mirroring requests) to sal@kachinatech.com Sincerely, Team SAL Kachina Technologies, Inc. March 31, 1998

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