Re: gnuplot in Octave review

[John W. Eaton]

On 10-Feb-2009, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:

| but
| maybe you think it's natural to use "gnu" for free software that
| doesn't have anything to with GNU. Many other people, however, often
| believe gnuplot has something to do with GNU.

As I understand it, RMS first announced the GNU project in September
1983, but didn't start work on it until sometime in 1984.  The gnuplot
copyright statement includes the date 1986.  Although I was using
computers at network-connected universities starting in 1983, I didn't
know about the GNU project until late in 1987 or early 1988.  So it
doesn't surprise me that the gnuplot authors were not thinking about
naming conflicts or confusion with the (largely unknown) GNU project
way back then.  However, I found about about gnuplot around the same
time as I discovered the GNU project, and I did think the two were
somehow related.

jwe