Re: gnuplot, ignore if tired of thread

[David Doolin]

[]
>> Daniel,  would you be so kind as to provide details on the
>> current copyrights?  Last year when I investigated, it was
>> still the patch based system.  Thanks.
>
>Still patch based. 

[]

>The one who can change the Copyright is T.W..
>After two weeks I have his mailadress right now. :-)

Good.  I am willing to snail mail him a letter.

>MAYBE if most of the developers, and MANY enduser's 
>especially other software projects like octave who use 
>and NEED gnuplot ask him multiple times VERY POLITE
>he might change his mind.
>So let me know if there are enough volunteers to write some
>polite mails with good arguments for a few weeks
>(to get a free license is not free ;-)).

[]

>
>I would like to have another copyright for gnuplot of course,
>but is it REALLY necessary?

No, it's not, really, because gnuplot will become slowly irrelevant
over the next several years.  But, under a better license (GPL),
gnuplot could be easily extended.  I already mentioned embedding 
in GTK or QT widgets.  Another area for improvement would be 
libreadline and libhistory linking, which would vastly improve 
the cli.  And it would be very inconvenient to rewrite several 
years of plotting scripts if gnuplot eventually dies. 

>
>The way it is used right now, doesn't use gnuplot-patches.

Right.  You are correct in your assessment that gnuplot could in fact 
be distributed with octave as unmodified source (Because it
is not *linked* to octave).  But this is really a lesser issue.

For those that are still following this thread, this horse isn't
dead yet.  With a license change and a bit more developer interest,
gnuplot could start to evolve into a tecplot style app, which is
sorely lacking in the linux world.  If tecplot were cheaper, I would
just buy it and be done with it.  Part of the reason I am still
beating it (the horse) is that I am not currently using octave.
I have to use matlab + guide, which makes me unhappy.  octave users
are a natural and potentially huge user base for gnuplot.  It would 
truly be sad if the gnuplot community decides to keep the status quo. 

So, count me in for some emailing.  I have lots of good arguments
for why gnuplot would benefit from GPL licensing.

Thanks for your efforts Daniel.

Dave Doolin




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