Re: [OctDev] GUI design

[Daniel J Sebald]

On 03/25/2012 09:44 AM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
> On 23 March 2012 19:02, Robert T. Short<address@hidden>  wrote:
> > All Jordi was trying to say (I think) was that if we are going to do it,
> > then we need to quit fussing about the interface, pick a concept that
> > works, and get on with it.  That makes sense.
>
> Yep. This is exactly it. We have evidence of a concept that seems to
> work. Look for reviews of GUI Octave online. Other than problems
> because of the way it's built, people seem to universally praise it. I
> have even heard people praise it more than Matlab's own interface,
> which is why I think we should just replicate it.

What features does it have?  What features do people think an IDE should 
have?


> Furthermore, Daniel, regarding GUI Octave and its prerogative to keep
> itself closed, I'm not convinced that's true. From where I'm standing,
> it looks like derivative work based on Octave, thus a GPL violation.

It boils down to a legal question (meaning a judge would have to 
interpret), but to me GUI Octave looks like aggregate work.  It 
communicates with Octave but is not linked with Octave in terms of 
binaries nor execution space.  I assume neither does it restrict the use 
of Octave in any way; that is, if GUI Octave (once installed on a 
computer) prevented a user from running Octave in any way but through 
its interface, that would be a violation of the Octave GPL license.

The only possible infringement I see is the name, and that would be 
John's call or possibly anyone else from long ago who conceived the name 
Octave or anyone those having ownership may have assigned naming rights to.


> I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not sure of this, but I sure don't like
> non-free stuff built on top of Octave. We gave the guy Octave, and he
> won't give us back his GUI.

Why is that a problem?  That would be restricting the use of the Octave 
software.


> So, let's make the best of it and just
> take his design back, since that seems to be the part that he gave us.

I think if Octave developers want to put effort into an IDE the best 
approach is to start with deciding what features it should have and go 
from there.

Dan




> - Jordi G. H.
>
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--

Dan Sebald
email: daniel(DOT)sebald(AT)ieee(DOT)org
URL: http://www(DOT)dansebald(DOT)com