Re: [PKG] Instrument control: GPIB, USBTMC, VXI11

[Juan Pablo Carbajal]

On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 6:32 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
<address@hidden> wrote:
> On 27 November 2012 12:27, Stefan Mahr <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> My instrument control is just for communicating with external
>> (standalone) instruments over different interfaces. There's no
>> direct driver support for DAQ devices.
>>
>> Some time ago I looked at comedi library, but there's no support for
>> my NI-5421 DAC. Unfortunately, I had to build a standalone exe, link
>> it to NI's fgen and made a system call from octave. Terrible
>> workaround, but it should be GPL save. :)
>
> The technical details (pipes or dynamic or static linking) aren't what
> makes the exe a derivative work of Octave or not, but rather the
> fundamental nature of the communication and the kind of the data
> exchanged. For example, is your exe producing output that only Octave
> would understand and is only meant to be used with Octave? If so, this
> is a GPL violation.
>
> What kind of effort would it take to make comedi support your NI
> hardware? This is the real long-term solution.
>
> - Jordi G. H.

(moving thread again to maintainers due to latest change in the mailing list)

I need to stand with Stefan here,

What Jordi is pointing out is the legal background for inclusion in
Octave Forge. We (at least I do!) find very good that someone did take
the first step to freeing all this interfaces even if the work is not
finished.

Now we have a nice starting point!

Also with your efforts you have made evident the need to free all
these other tools. I know how hard is to balance the need to get
things done and the urge to offer free tools for everybody. Thanks for
your efforts! I hope that our enthusiasm (and help) will further fuel
your energies for sharing! (Are you in Europe? Come to the next
OctConf!)

Regarding comedi. The mailing list is dead and heavily spammed since
like 2 years. The hope is to contact Frank Mori Hess
<address@hidden> or Ian Abbott <address@hidden> (any
relation with our Abbott?) and ask them for guidelines.

I will be in ARG in December and I may have acces to GPIB compatible
HP power supplies to test/make tutorials (@Andrius, did you check if
yours is GPIB compatible? I remember seeing an AGILENT in the video of
Blue-bot)

Thanks again Stefan

Cheers

JPi