> Richard, can you comment on this? A number of Octave users create oct > files to talk to non-free libraries for external hardware. An oct file > is basically a C++ program that uses Octave's headers and links to > Octave. It is my understanding that these oct files are also linking > to non-free libraries. I am uncomfortable that people do this and > distribute the results. What do you think? > > That could be a GPL violation. We need to look at the specific > details. > > -- > Dr Richard Stallman > President, Free Software Foundation > 51 Franklin St > Boston MA 02110 > USA > www.fsf.org www.gnu.org > Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. > Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call > > _______________________________________________ > Help-octave mailing list > help-oct...@octave.org > https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/listinfo/help-octave
Richard, This is an example of the code in the package in question. https://github.com/jsalort/OctMI/blob/master/Low-level/GPIB/src/ibdev.cpp (Julien correct me if I am wrong) It includes octave/oct.h and ni488.h. It uses a macro defined in octave/oct.h, some functions and several datatypes. finally it uses a function from the ni488.h to me it looks like a wrapper to a library function. Is this a GPL violation? What about if one would add compiler directives in the header #ifndef FREE_BEER #include <free_gpib.h> #else #include <ni488.h> #endif and in the body of the function #ifndef FREE_BEER ud = free_ibdev(BdIndx,pad,sad,tmp,eot,eos); #else ud = ibdev(BdIndx,pad,sad,tmp,eot,eos); #endif Would this be a violation? clearly the user is not being forced to link to the non-free library, just he "can". Thanks ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov _______________________________________________ Octave-dev mailing list Octave-dev@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/octave-dev
