From: Brian O'Connell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 6:29 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: HP (Agilent) 85869PC software
Good People,
Support of legacy instrument drivers has become a huge problem (well, at
least for me) to the compliance engineering community. If a company no
longer supports an instrument, or will not upgrade an instrument support
system to production platforms, perhaps the community should encourage the
release of the source code to the IEEE or post it on Source Forge.
A good example of giving away old versions is Borland; a good example of
giving away (to the public) discontinued software is TurboPower. So this has
been done...
Does the IEEE have a policy on encouraging the release of old stuff, or have
an office that would be interested in becoming a "clearing house" for these
legacy software systems ?
Please note that the rights to the software can be retained by the original
company, even after the source has been released to the public. I feel that
many corporations have been scared away from this by the (somewhat)
draconian requirements of the GNU/GPL open-source license.
luck,
Brian
Brian:
I'm an owner of a $65,000 HP-8566B, reworked into a (IIRC) $50,000 HP-8571A,
later upgraded with a $3,500 HP-85650A QPA, $1,200 HPLJ1 & and a $400
DeskJet 865cxi printer to yield an HP-8572A Receiver System. I started
controlling all this with a (IIRC) $3,500 Series 300 Controller and the
$8,000 HP-85869A software, later upgraded to a PC (needing the $4,500
HP-85869PC software & the $1,100 dongle-protected HP Basic for Windows & the
most expensive NI GPIB card).
Despite my considerable loyalty & investment with HP / Agilent, their answer
to your suggestion was (and remains) a simple and hearty "NO". My government
may trust me with the darkest of COMSEC / Lotus Eater clearances, but
Agilent maintains tighter security of their code. End of discussion.
Regards,
Ed
Ed Price
[email protected] WB6WSN
NARTE Certified EMC Engineer & Technician
Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab
Cubic Defense Applications
San Diego, CA USA
858-505-2780 (Voice)
858-505-1583 (Fax)
Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty
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