RE: [Axiom-mail] Experimental Online Web Interface for REDUCE

[Page, Bill]

Axiom Users:

I know everyone hates to talk about "licenses" and such but
I think I need to make as brief as possible clarification
of what I wrote earlier.

On Wednesday, August 04, 2004 4:57 PM I wrote:
> ... 
> I am particularly interested in your views on the pros
> and cons of having a "bilingual" online mathematics web
> site supporting both Axiom and Reduce. Both Axiom and
> Reduce are similar in "age" -- or should I say maturity?
> Both are now open source systems. But they differ
> significantly in their approach to implementing mathematics
> on the computer.
> 

Tony Hearn has pointed out to me that what I wrote is not
correct. Reduce is not "open source". In fact the source
code of Reduce is available (for a fee). For ordering
information see:

  http://reduce-algebra.com/ordering%20information.htm

Licensing information is here:

  http://reduce.codemist.co.uk

and here

  http://www.zib.de/Symbolik/reduce/dist/

But Reduce *cannot* be redistributed to others without
permission from the original distributors. This is not
consistent with the strict definition of open source as
defined by www.opensource.org.

But in the same email Dr. Hearn confirmed that [my
paraphrase]: although one can not give anyone open access
to the Reduce source code, they can of course have free
use of the web interface.

This seems very clear to me and I have no problem continuing
to work with Reduce and Axiom on these terms.

Regards,
Bill Page.

http://page.axiom-developer.org