Bug#335185: ITP: newmat -- manipulate matrices using standard operations
Hi Philippe, (and hi everybody who chimed in)
Thank you for your ITP on newmat.
I am a past user of newmat ("way back when" in graduate school; this even
lead to a small publication of a newmat/g++ review from 1996 that is still
referenced from the newmat documentation) and feel compelled to comment on
some of the feedback you received for the ITP, and the perceived license
issues.
Let me add that I had quite a few email exchanges back then with newmat's
author. Based on the fairly regular contact I had with him, there is no doubt
in my mind that Robert would a) welcome inclusion of newmat in Debian, and b)
consider newmat to be obviously open source. See below -- he even grants
commercial rights and simply requests a) attribution of authorship, and b)
that alternate "essentially free" sources for the same code are mentioned. In
my book, this is pretty close to the spirit of the GPL/LGPL (but kept a lot
shorter and simpler).
So if it really came to a "confration" about this -- which I unfortunately
cannot exclude given some of the prior comments in this thread -- then
someone from Debian -- maybe you, or maybe someone with a tad more experience
from debian-legal -- should send a polite, concise and well written email
letter to Robert with suggestions for a clarified license. That could
potentially help. However, it is my understanding that the license as
re-printed in the docs is suitable for our use. For sake of argument, I
reprint it below replacing the website's bold face with upper case letters.
Hence, and to move this forward: if someone like Willi has any objections to
the license, I would kindly request that he/she quote clearly the paragraph
that is questioned, and preferably back up with references to other
discussions hpw any of this would in fact be in conflict with our
philosophies and license interpretations.
Thanks, Dirk
>From the newmat10 manual:
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1.1 Conditions of use
next - skip - up - start
There are no restrictions on the use of newmat except that I take no
liability for any problems that may arise from this use.
I welcome its distribution as part of low cost CD-ROM collections.
You can use it in your commercial projects. However, if you distribute the
source, please make it clear which parts are mine and that they are available
essentially for free over the Internet.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THERE MAY STILL BE BUGS AND ERRORS. USE AT YOUR OWN
RISK. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THIS PACKAGE OR
FOR ANY MISFORTUNE THAT MAY BEFALL YOU OR OTHERS AS A RESULT OF ITS USE.
Please report bugs to me at robert (at) statsresearch.co.nz
When reporting a bug please tell me which C++ compiler you are using, and
what version. Also give me details of your computer. And tell me which
version of newmat (e.g. newmat03 or newmat04) you are using. Note any changes
you have made to my code. If at all possible give me a piece of code
illustrating the bug. See the problem report form.
Please do report bugs to me.
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--
Statistics: The (futile) attempt to offer certainty about uncertainty.
-- Roger Koenker, 'Dictionary of Received Ideas of Statistics'
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