Re: Mathworks-hosted GPL'd software

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 16 February 2010 02:20, Judd Storrs <address@hidden> wrote:
> We intend to make your software part of the OctaveForge project so
> that it can be used freely with GNU Octave or for other purposes.

... such as Freemat. Octave isn't the only free implementation of the
Matlab language, (and they beat us to JIT, wonder if we could use some
of their code). Also, brevity is the soul of wit; the letter might be
a tad too long.

In all this, are we going to follow with Søren's suggestion to unify
the 'forge and the core pages, at least host them within the same
server and perhaps provide separate links to them?

As I recall, the historical separation from them was that the core
Octave code was very conservative, whereas Octave-forge was a separate
staging area for more experimental code. Now it looks like
Octave-forge is relatively stable and expected to work better with the
core Octave while we need a repository for even *more* experimental
and community-driven software.

John, Søren said that he was too busy to merge the websites. I've done
a wee bit of web maintenance (not design) elsewhere. Can I help? I
more or less envision that the Octave website has another link in the
sidebar for "extension packages" that have proven to be of wide
appeal. If you want, we can put a caveat in this section about how the
'forge packages have not undergone as much review as the core.

Then we would have yet another section of the website dedicated to the
discussion, hosting, and sharing of more experimental software that
may have originated in Matlab and may not even work yet in Octave as
it is. Judd has suggested some software we can already use to enable a
wider community. I suggest calling it the Octave Bazaar, if you'll
pardon the connotations (or, Octave Marketplace? Octave Forum? Octave
Thrift Exchange?).

Core (or the GNU part), forge, and bazaar, three approaches to Octave
software, and all close to each other in the same space.