Re: [Matplotlib-users] Contouring a large set of ungridded data

[Chris B. <Chr...@no...>]

Jeff Whitaker wrote:

> Robert:  But this refers to modifications made to it "in the same 
> file".    The way I read this, if we don't change his source files we 
> can redistribute them any way we want, as long as we leave the CSIRO 
> copyright notices alone.

I think Robert already answered this one: while we cold do that, we 
would then be distributing code with MPL that carried extra 
restrictions, so that MPL users couldn't modify it at will. I agree that 
this is to be avoided.

Perhaps it's time to start a SciPy-extras collection that includes code 
under other, weird licenses.

This would be SO much easier of people throwing their code out on the 
Internet would just use one of the common licensing schemes.

I still think it's worth talking to the author, however. As Robert 
pointed out, these folks are clearly not all that cluefull about open 
source licenses. They may have little idea what they really are 
restricting. As a simple example, someone on the wxPython list has been 
developing a bunch of nifty higher-level widgets, hoping to get them 
included in the wxPython lib. However, he had released them all under 
the GPL, just because he didn't know any better. When someone wrote to 
him, pointing out that his stuff couldn't be used in any non-GPL 
projects, it turns out that wasn't his intent. I think he's going to 
re-release it all under the wxWidgets license (modified LGPL).

However, it looks like this one may be standard CSIRO policy, so the 
author may have no choice, and changing an institutional policy is MUCH 
harder!

Another, semi-related, thought: I feel strongly that MPL should focus on 
being a plotting library, NOT a full blown computational environment. 
That should be the focus of SciPy. Therefore, code to interpolate 
unstructured data would be better put into SciPy than MPL. Same 
licensing issues, of course.

-Chris


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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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Chr...@no...