Please update py-novas_py to 3.1.1

[cdeil (Christoph Deil)]

Could you please update the py-novas_py port to version 3.1.1, released September 2012?

According to ​http://pypi.python.org/pypi/novas/ novas now is Python 3 compatible, so Python 32 and 33 should be added to python.versions.

Python 25 should be removed from the list, because this package is not Python 2.5 compatible. It does install, but then on import gives this error for me:

$ python2.5 -c 'import novas'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/opt/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/novas/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from ctypes import CDLL
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/ctypes/__init__.py", line 10, in <module>
    from _ctypes import Union, Structure, Array
ImportError: No module named _ctypes

One more point: At the moment the Portfile has license set to unknown. The PyPI page states this:

This software was produced by the United States Naval Observatory at the expense of United States taxpayers, and is therefore not suseptible to copyright, because a copyright would place taxpayer property under private ownership. Since it is not copyrighted, it cannot be licensed; it is simply free.

What should be set as "license" in the Portfile? Does anyone know if this is BSD compatible?

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

This software was produced by the United States Naval Observatory at the expense of United States taxpayers, and is therefore not suseptible to copyright, because a copyright would place taxpayer property under private ownership. Since it is not copyrighted, it cannot be licensed; it is simply free.

What should be set as "license" in the Portfile?

"Public Domain" I'm pretty sure. That's what most US Government works go under.

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Cc Me!

[seanfarley (Sean Farley)]

Replying to egall@…:

This software was produced by the United States Naval Observatory at the expense of United States taxpayers, and is therefore not suseptible to copyright, because a copyright would place taxpayer property under private ownership. Since it is not copyrighted, it cannot be licensed; it is simply free.

What should be set as "license" in the Portfile?

"Public Domain" I'm pretty sure. That's what most US Government works go under.

I think that should be "public-domain," from what I read on PortfileRecipes.

[lpsinger (Leo Singer)]

Ah, I had missed the update because the 'official' NOVAS web site, ​http://aa.usno.navy.mil/software/novas/novas_py/novaspy_intro.php, was not updated.

Is the official source now kept in GitHub, at ​https://github.com/brandon-rhodes/python-novas?

[cdeil (Christoph Deil)]

Hmmm, I just had a closer look and now I think that 3.1.1 is not an official update.

Here's what I think happened:

The official NOVAS Python 3.1 was released at ​http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/software-products/novas/novas-python

Then Brandon Rhodes put it up on PyPI at ​http://pypi.python.org/pypi/novas/ to make it easier to find and install, e.g. with pip. Then he added Python 3 support and fixed one bug and release that as NOVAS Python 3.1.1 on PyPI. He also has this code at ​https://github.com/brandon-rhodes/python-novas .

This is getting confusing, maybe for now hold off on upgrading to 3.1.1. Adding the "public-domain" license and removing the Python 2.5 port would be improvements in any case.

[cdeil (Christoph Deil)]

I did contact USNO and Brandon Rhodes via private email, asking them to make this situation more transparent. There's barely any astronomers using Python 3 at the moment ( ​http://astrofrog.github.com/blog/2013/01/13/what-python-installations-are-scientists-using/ ) , so let's just wait a few weeks to see what happens.

[lpsinger (Leo Singer)]

OK, on GitHub I'm also asking Brandon to incorporate the patches to compat.py:

​https://github.com/brandon-rhodes/python-novas/pull/1

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

JFYI, python25's ctypes just can't be built 64-bit on OS X. Anyone using a 32-bit build_arch, which is the default for 10.6 on a 32-bit machine or 10.5 or 10.4 on any machine, would still be able to use it.

[lpsinger (Leo Singer)]

Fixed this some time ago.