From: "Ludovic Courtès" <ludo@gnu.org>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>
Cc: 35234@debbugs.gnu.org, Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz>
Subject: [bug#35234] [PATCH] gnu: Add the-dark-mod.
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2019 18:50:37 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <8736mayof6.fsf@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <878sw275ye.fsf@elephly.net> (Ricardo Wurmus's message of "Mon, 22 Apr 2019 11:19:21 +0200")
Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> skribis:
> The package claims to provide a game, not a game engine. As a user I
> would install this only to be told that I need to obtain proprietary
> software (i.e. the game or the demo) to play this. This is steering
> people to seek out and use proprietary software.
>
> We should change the package so that it conveys the right message,
> either by making it clear that this is not a game but the game engine,
> or by including the game data. Even if the data are non-functional they
> must be redistributable. If they are not then we cannot include the
> game data and it would be highly misleading to call the package after
> the game.
I agree.
Pierre, can you look into implementing one of these two options?
>> * gnu/packages/games.scm (the-dark-mod): New variable.
> […]
>> + (synopsis "Game based on the Thief series by Looking Glass Studios")
>> + (description (format #f "The Dark Mod (TDM) is stealth/infiltration game
>> +based on the Thief series by Looking Glass Studios. Formerly a Doom III mod,
>> +it is now released as a standalone.
>> +
>> +The game data must be fetched manually by running @command{tdm_update}.
>> +The ~a environment variable specifies the location where the game data is
>> +saved (defaults to ~a)."
>> + the-dark-mod-env-var-name the-dark-mod-env-var-value))
(As a side note: do not use ‘format’ here, or wrap the format string in
‘G_’ to allow for i18n.)
> Is this actually free software? Does it depend on the proprietary Thief
> game data to be playable? What is the purpose of tdm_update?
>
> I don’t think it’s good to have people run the tdm_update tool, because
> this smells like the anti pattern seen for many games in other
> distributions where you really only install a downloader, which then
> fetches the (potentially non-free) game data.
>
> The game data are free in this case, but since this is provided by an
> unversioned URL it might not be when a user runs the command. I prefer
> to include a snapshot of the game data.
+1. The download script looks like giving upstream blanket permission;
even from a technical standpoint, it goes counter our reproducibility
mantra.
(We would disable phone-home mechanisms, and automatic download of game
data goes even a step further.)
Ludo’.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-04-22 16:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-04-11 18:16 [bug#35234] [PATCH] gnu: Add the-dark-mod Pierre Neidhardt
2019-04-11 19:40 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2019-04-12 9:39 ` Pierre Neidhardt
2019-04-12 11:22 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2019-04-12 12:02 ` Pierre Neidhardt
2019-04-21 14:13 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2019-04-21 16:18 ` Ludovic Courtès
2019-04-22 9:02 ` Pierre Neidhardt
2019-04-22 9:19 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2019-04-22 9:42 ` Pierre Neidhardt
2019-04-22 16:50 ` Ludovic Courtès [this message]
2019-04-22 17:42 ` Pierre Neidhardt
2019-04-22 10:01 ` Adonay Felipe Nogueira
2019-04-22 9:40 ` Adonay Felipe Nogueira
2019-04-22 11:56 ` Ricardo Wurmus
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