Re: Wrapper for vectorized math libraries

[Dan Davis]

2011/10/1 Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden>:
> On 1 October 2011 11:26, Dan Davis <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Thus, I pose the question, before I spend too much time hacking for
>> the sake of hacking, if I could give Octave the capability to
>> utilize these closed source libraries' vectorized transcendental
>> function calls without having to distribute them with Octave, and
>> thus, as far as I can tell, not violating any license, would that
>> capability be desired?
>
> At least on my part, no. You may keep such a script for yourself if
> you wish, but we cannot accept it in Octave, because it violates the
> GNU coding standards:
>
>    http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#References
>
> The GPL should not be an obstacle to be worked around with hacks. "If
> I distribute it this way, can I avoid the copyleft?" seems to me like
> a misguided question. The real obstacle is that there is no free
> library that does what you need, so the real solution is to find a way
> to get a free library to do what you need. I recommend you don't start
> from scratch. I wasn't able to follow all of your discussion, but as I
> understand it, you would like a free library that has vectorised calls
> for some special functions. The GSL is an example of a free library
> that can do special function, so why don't you work on trying to build
> vectorisation into the GSL instead? I find its source to be very
> readable C, and perhaps you will enjoy reading it too.
>
> I think that is a much better long-term investment of your time. I
> understand you may not want to do it and would prefer a simple legal
> hack for a perceived smaller problem. I, however, see a larger problem
> and I would prefer to see a larger solution to it. I hope you decide
> to take this route instead.
>
> - Jordi G. H.
>

Jordi,

Thank you very much, that is the answer I was looking for.  Given the
touchy feelings many have about open source and closed source
interactions, is this an acceptable thing to include in a Gnu program?
 However, in this particular case, I now wonder if GCC is following
the Gnu coding standards, as it has very special flags that enable
many optimizations with and emit calls specifically to these 2
libraries.  But that's a discussion for another list.

Dan Davis