"Bill Page" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: ... > I would be very glad if you could write something.
So that any potential signers could get a quick grasp of the situation, a little history might be useful. What about something like: Axiom is a sophisticated computer algebra system originally developed by the the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG). After NAG discontinued work on Axiom, they generously released the source code under a free license. Axiom is now very usable and is currently being actively developed by an enthusiastic community. It is expected to be useful in research and education for quite some time. The language used for writing Axiom programs is called SPAD (short for Scratchpad, the original name of Axiom). While Axiom was still being developed by NAG, an improved extension language called Aldor was created. While the Aldor compiler was originally part of the Axiom system, it soon became a separate project and was not part of Axiom when the Axiom sources were relicensed. Binaries for Aldor have been made freely available and the sources are available under a generous license. However, the license does not qualify as a free or open source license. While Axiom can still be built using Aldor, the lack of a free license for Aldor prohibits it from being a standard part of Axiom, and so nothing in the base Axiom system can assume that Aldor is included. A free license for Aldor would allow it to become a standard part of Axiom, which would improve Axiom and make Aldor a more widespread language. A free license available as soon as possible would allow current development on Axiom to use Aldor. We, the undersigned, respectfully request that the Aldor compiler be released under a free license at the earliest opportunity. Sincerely, > I am not sure whether a formal petition is really necessary (although > I have it very interesting to learn that websites devoted to the > purpose actually exist ... :) Quite a few, too. A formal petition probably isn't necessary, but something to let Steven Watt know that a lot of people are interested would be useful. > The Axiom website is a wiki (user editable), so it would be very > easy to add a page consisting of the petition to Free Aldor. We > could freeze the text and then readers could "sign" it by simply > adding a comment. That might not be a bad idea. We would have to get Steven Watt to look at it, of course. >From the letter from Steven Watt that you quoted, it sounds like he's willing to free Aldor when he gets the chance. If he's like me, he just needs a reminder now and then. Whatever we can do to provide a nudge would be useful. Jay _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer