| Re: IDL, GDL, copyright, EULAs and such [message #44698 is a reply to message #44689] |
Wed, 13 July 2005 10:40   |
Y.T.
Messages: 25
Registered: December 2004
|
Junior Member |
|
|
> But I think if you look around
> http://www.astro.washington.ed u/deutsch/idl/htmlhelp/
>
> You'll find that almost all the IDL code has been duplicated by
> someone else somewhere else. You are probably allowed to use that.
Maybe someone needs to start collecting these things and compile them
into a "free idl-alike .pro library". The value of something like GDL
would really increase drastically through this.
And earlier, Christopher Lee wrote:
> There's a free version of linfit at
> http://www.astro.washington.ed u/deutsch-bin/getpro/library37 .html?LINFIT
>
> it's not the same as the IDL version, so you'd need to work it into a
> function, and add the keywords that the IDL version makes available
Not to sound ungrateful, but that's kinda pointless. I can write my own
version of linfit (and everything else in the IDL library). If I have
to write scads of code to make a trivial algorithm work, then I might
as well implement the whole thing myself.
The point was that there's already an existing library that has it all
inside - the IDL library. Up until recently, RSI could be rather
cavalier about sharing this around as the library files are pretty nigh
useless without a working installation of IDL. So they put all their
license-enforcement efforts into the binary and didn't fuss when/where
people shared .pro-files around.
But these days, the library suddenly attains value by itself as the
binary core can be replaced (to better and better degree) with GDL.
Some of this is very intimately linked to IDL and it's workings -- like
all the windowing/widget stuff. But for myself I don't need those
things -- all *my* routines that need complex user-interactions have
been talking to ports for the last five years or so where the user can
pick things up with his/her favorite web-browser (which doesn't even
have to run on the same computer).
But there's other routines, and linfit is an obvious example, that are
not in the least married to IDL - but who's well-defined (by RSI)
interface still expedites software development. We can all start
writing our own versions, but then my programs would either become
non-portable or otherwise lumbering hunks of re-re-re-duplicated code.
The longer I think about it, the more I realize that the ability to
replicate (copy? re-write? cobble together from various places?
reverse-engineer? mimick? which of these is legal these days under the
RSI license?) the library is going to be the thing that'll make GDL
stand or fall.
just some thoughts...
cordially
Y.T.
--
Remove YourClothes before you email me.
|
|
|
|
comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive
Members
Search
Help
Login
Home
