[Ecls-list] success, was: broken local installation of ecl

[Oliver Kullmann]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 07:37:14PM +0200, Juan Jose Garcia-Ripoll wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 7:25 PM, Oliver Kullmann
> <O.Kullmann at swansea.ac.uk> wrote:
> > setting LDFLAGS I was also able to compile ECL and to
> > build Maxima, but yet it's not usable:
> 
> By usable you mean that you do not have readline functionality?!?
>

yes.
 
> > Neither the ECL nor the Maxima frontend now understands
> > any cursor key. As far as I know that is a readline thing,
> > but I have a system-installation of readline, and also the
> > ecl-installation done before hadn't any problem with that.
> > (Or any other installation, like clisp ...)
> 
> Readline is not something that Maxima provides. It is a library that
> may be used by an implementation to provide a more convenient
> toplevel.

that's bad news.

> Clisp is linked with it. ECL has _never_ and will never use
> it, because it carries a license

apparently you mean GPLv2

> that would automatically turn ECL
> into a GPL project, preventing any commercial use.
>

Sorry, but that's nonsense.

By using gcc (GPL) or readline or
whatsoever you do not need to take over the GPL, since it's just a tool.
These things are discussed at many places at length, see for example
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html.
(Just an example: FreeBSD uses readline.)

So, please, say what you really mean, and this open on the project 
web page: You fight certain forms of open source/ free software, and 
thus you will not use some software (don't hide behind fake technical argumentation).
(I'm not arguing here against political decisions: The point is honesty.)
 
> There are alternatives to using readline. There are programs that act
> as a front ent between you and your lisp implementation, from simple
> readline simulators which have been thoroughly discussed in the
> mailing list to the great emacs, which is a superb frontend both for
> lisp and for maxima.
> 

This would just add another installation nightmare, since then my *active*
library had to install also emacs, which furthermore not all of my users
use (at all --- and those who use it want to use their own version etc.).

So well, then let's install rlwrap (since I care for my users, I don't want
them everybody on their own to find out about all these complications,
but I solve it once and for all for them --- why couldn't do ecl the same? ---
then we wouldn't need to waste our time here).

Oliver