Re: [guppi-list] use of GSL in guppi

[Jon Trowbridge <trow emccta com>]

On Sun, Sep 13, 1998 at 04:21:06PM +0200, Mark Galassi wrote:
> 
> Amigos, I don't know if anyone on this list has been following GSL
> (GNU Scientific Library).
> 
> ...
> 
> What do you all think?
> 

I've been poking through GSL, which is a cool package... but as far as I
can tell, it is GPL rather LGPL.

Which raises an issue.  Now as far as I'm concerned, either way you go
is great.  But so far we've been following the convention of GPLing
the app (Guppi) and LGPLing the libraries that provide the
broader functionality (Gtk--Draw, Gtk--Plot, Goose).

Now it looks like most of the good free numerical/statistical code out
there (GSL, R) is GPLed.  Since I don't want to reinvent the wheel, my
options seem to be:

  (1) Switch Goose to GPL.

  (2) Convince everybody else to go LGPL, or convince everybody else to
      distribute their code to me under the LGPL.

Now (1) is the easiest.  It doesn't hurt me any, as I have no
intentions of ever developing commerical products based on any of this
stuff.  And it does seem to fit with the RMS "World Domination" theory
(which I actually agree with, but haven't really been putting into
practice) of library licensing: if a commerical alternative exists,
LGPL it.  Otherwise, GPL it.

On the other hand, I'm not violently opposed to commercial software,
as long as nobody forces me to use it.  And my goal is really to get
the broadest use possible for Goose (and the rest of this stuff), and
maybe LGPL gives me a slighly larger population of users.

So I guess that I'll switch Goose to GPL and start grabbing code from
R and relying on GSL, unless anyone can think of a good reason not to.

-JT