Re: History behind pkgsrc 'biology' category

[matthew sporleder <msporleder%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 6:09 PM, Swift Griggs <swiftgriggs%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> I am curious (only curious - this is not a complaint): Does anyone know why
> there ended up being a pretty well-fleshed-out 'biology' section in pkgsrc
> but there isn't "chemistry", "physics", "engineering" etc...
>
> Was there some prodigious pkgsrc maintainer/hacker who was a biologist or is
> it just that there happen to be more biology-related programs which justify
> the discrete category?
>
> Again, not complaining. I think it's quirky and cool. I'm just curious.
>
> Thanks,
>   Swift


I wasn't around then but the cvs history pretty much confirms my suspicions:

René Hexel  (rh@)  started the category in 1999 with the message:
"Enable bioperl."

If you recall, the late 90's and early 2000's saw a big push in
bioinformatics, and especially with perl as a processing language.

Matt

p.s. I have cc'ed René to see if more details can be shared.