Re: Wavelab (Was: save/load structured data?)

[David L. Donoho]

> However, the big problem is that wavelab is not open source.
> It's under a "not for commercial use" licence which is
> a real pain. I suspect that linking wavelab *oct files
> is not GPL-ok. I'm not sure what the rules for *.m files
> are - my understanding is that jwe does not interpret
> this as linking under the GPL, so running Wavelab *.m
> files is ok - except if you don't work in academia,
> in which case you are doing "commercial use"!


Hi, I was the originator of wavelab.

I have given permission to several people to translate
wavelab into other formats, and it is the basis of
several commercial products. So I guess I don't understand this
complaint.

First, the library is open source in the most
fundamental sense that anybody can look at
all the source 24/7.

Second,  If someone were contemplating to spend the hours
it might take to convert to octave -- there are
graphics conversion issues they might have to face -- they could send
me an e-mail, and I could discuss it with them beforehand,
which might save them a lot of work. It's not necessarily
bad to have to talk to a program's author before beginning
a port.

Third, I'd like to have an octave version of wavelab to play with for myself,
so I'd be unlikely to refuse reasonable requests.

Fourth, I personally can't put the thing under GPL because
of certain rights of others which I have to check with
on a case-by-case basis. If GPL had been more established
when I got started with this (1991) then I would have been
more in tune with these things at the time it would have mattered.

Dave

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