XVCG

[marc-alexandre autret]

Hi all,

Any informations about VCG.

---------------------------------------------------------

>From address@hidden Wed Aug 22 12:30:20 2001
Subject: Re: xvcg
From: Georg Sander <address@hidden>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:27:16 +0200


Hi,

> The integration of VCG in Bison is successful.
> I have the project to maintain xvcg and
> subscribe it as a GNU project...
> 
> Could you tell me what you think about that and/or
> if you see any problem.

a few years back, I talked to RMS about VCG and he disliked the fact
that in version 1.3x, the layout algorithms are delivered in uglified
source code. Unfortunately, at that time, I could not change it.

In the current situation, there are various versions out:

* VCG 1.0.xxx:         with full readable source code
* VCG 1.30 / Unix:     with readable source code but uglified source files
                       of the layout part (5 files).
* VCG 1.4x / Windows:  distributed always as binaries, because Windows people
                       don't care about sources. BTW: I mean Windows 3.1. It is
                       loooong time ago, Windows 95 did not exist yet.

Besides that, there are two more versions:

* My latest working version. Let's call it 1.6, because it is more advanced
  than the distributed Windows or Unix version. This version is for UNIX mainly.

* aiSee (www.aisee.com). The software tool iaSee is based on the VCG sources
  somewhen between 1.4x and 1.6. Let's call this 1.5. The company absInt
  basically wrote a Windows NT interface for it, and they sell it now.
  aiSee is free for noncomercial usage.

The version numbers 1.5 and 1.6 are fictuous, just to understand the situation.
There were never any versions with these numbers officially distributed.

It is a long story. Around 1996, I left the University, and afterwards,
support for VCG went to sleep, because I couldn't support it anymore, and the
students remaining at the University weren't interested enough or did it only
half hearted. Around 1998 some of these students formed a company called AbsInt
and they included aiSee in their product line. This seems to be legal, because
the University is the copyright holder and gave them the permission, and when
they asked me, I told them that I don't care, so in principle they have also
my permission. In 1999 I was even shortly employed by them and helped on aiSee,
because my knowledge about the internals of VCG seems still superior than
their's. I left AbsInt after one month again; it simply wasn't my thing
anymore. See http://www.absint.com/aisee/vcg.htm for the story.

Now, if VCG becomes a GNU project, there may be a legal issue concerning
aiSee. In principle, I'm willing to give everyone my latest working version
(VCG, not aiSee) in full sources, but of course I'm not at all interested
in legal issues related to this.

My understanding is now (and I'm not a lawyer):

   VCG 1.0.xxx is GPL, and when you base your work on this, I cannot imagine
   any trouble.

   VCG 1.3.xxx was distributed freely, with good faith under GPL, but the
   fact that it contains uglified source code contradicts GPL (as RMS told
   me). So I don't know its legal status. Still, I think if you base your
   works on this, there will not be any trouble.

   VCG 1.6 was never distributed. I'm willing to give this to you, but I could
   imagine legal trouble, because VCG 1.6 includes changes of VCG 1.5 which
   is the base for aiSee.

If someone wants to take over VCG, I'd propose to use a different
name for it, e.g. GNU-VCG (gvcg) or something like that, just to avoid
legal confusion. Officially, GNU-VCG should be based on VCG 1.0 or maybe 1.3.
I'll send you the sources of VCG 1.3 (nonuglified), and maybe of 1.6, if
legally possible (I don't know yet). If someone can make a public repository
for it where people can contribute via net-CVS, then we should quickly be
at a stage superior to 1.6 again ...

Regards

--  
Georg

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Autret Marc (address@hidden)
Eleve Ingenieur en Informatique.