Re: enable GNU readline by default?

[<tim...@en...>]

Ethan Merritt wrote:
> On Thursday 08 June 2006 12:58 am, Petr Mikulik wrote:
>  =20
>>>> Now: What about enabling GNU readline by default as well?
>>>>        =20
>>> I agree that it would save work but the answer is no for the moment
>>> because of the licence incompatibility.
>>>      =20
>> There is no problem with the license until you distribute the binary.
>> Which normal users don't.
>>    =20
>
> That is correct.  It seems reasonable to me that ./configure=20
> can just test for gnu readline and include it unless explicitly
> disabled by the person doint the build.  Normal users building
> from source have no license issues.  Distributions can make their
> own call about  whether they feel constrained by the license
> and want to instead use the built-in via=20
>    ./configure --with-readline
> Last I checked, about half of the distros did and the other
> half didn't
>  =20
I would prefer the opposite reasoning : gnuplot is distributed mainly in=20
binary form by distributions. To avoid them legal issues (even if it is=20
likely that nobody will complain in a court), it is better to default to=20
the choice that legally works in any situation. I am sure a packager=20
prefers working on a program that does require a minimum of customization.

How many users are really compiling gnuplot from source regularly ?=20
Sourceforge says there are more than 10000 downloads per months for=20
gnuplot-4.0 , but I am pretty sure most of them are downloads of the=20
Windows binary version.

Others, like me,  probably add "--prefix=3D/home/user" or something like=20
that each time they compile gnuplot, and "--with-readline=3Dgnu" takes=20
just a few more milliseconds. "--enable-history-file" is a different=20
issue : it is about enabling a worthwhile feature that has absolutely no=20
objection.

I like Bastian's idea to use a BSD-licensed equivalent, if it is=20
maintained and broadly available. Otherwise it is gnuplot's license that=20
needs some more attention. It is a matter of honesty.

Best regards,

Timoth=E9e