[libvoikko] HFST support to libvoikko in Debian and Ubuntu?

[Timo Jyrinki]

Hello,

Would there be interest in working in getting HFST enabled libvoikko
in Debian (and therefore also Ubuntu) within this year?

I've packaged foma now and it's in Debian's NEW queue which is a slow
process so it might take a while. That'd enable VFST libvoikko 4.0 +
voikko-fi 2.0 which I've already prepared but waiting for foma.

I'm searching for a person who would commit to the packaging work in
Debian. I can help with packaging review, tips, sponsoring etc stuff
but I wouldn't want to expand my own existing commitments. That is,
the "Maintainer" field would be you or several persons.

The next Debian version will be frozen in Q4/2016, which in practice
means because of the slow processes that the package should be ready
for uploading this spring. The NEW queue handling is slow, the package
might got rejected to be reworked despite reviews, etc.

I'd like to also just understand what would need to be packaged for
this to happen? That is, all libraries and tools to both build
libvoikko with HFST support and building the HFST dictionaries. Is it
only hfstospell for libvoikko, but hfst itself too for building the
actual dictionaries? And then source packages for the dictionaries
like hfst-northernsami.

Harri has an existing packaging for hfstospell which can be used as a
baseline: https://github.com/voikko/debian-packages/tree/master/.

Modern Debian packaging is not complex on the one hand (debian/rules
is the main "build intelligence" in the packaging, and it's two lines
in eg that hfstospell), but on the other hand getting all the other
data 100% correct and according to policies
(https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/) does require significant
effort. I estimate 8h as minimum of strictly packaging work for the
HFST dependencies, and months for the overall process. But as
mentioned, I'm willing to instruct via e-mail as long as someone has
the resource of time and willingness to learn.

I will continue to maintain libvoikko, voikko-fi, libreoffice-voikko
and now foma. My hope would be to get the new libvoikko 4.0 with VFST
to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

-Timo