[Numpy-discussion] Re: Purchasing Documentation

[Colin J. Williams]

Perry Greenfield wrote:

> First of all, I certainly don't want to prevent Travis from recovering
> something for all the effort he has put into scipy_core. Nor do I wish
> to discourage anyone that wishes to provide alternative free 
> documentation
> if they so choose. But I will note some facts about numarray 
> documentation
> below that may prove useful to anyone considering the latter.
>
> On Oct 4, 2005, at 1:32 AM, Tim Churches wrote:
>
>> Paul F. Dubois wrote:
>>
>>> The original sources were in Framemaker. I am not positive where they
>>> are. In any case they are copyrighted by the Regents of the University
>>> of California. I am not a lawyer and don't know what the 
>>> consequences of
>>> that are. LLNL granted free distribution of the printed document with
>>> the Numeric source code but I don't know what their position would 
>>> be on
>>> using their copyrighted text in a new document or on giving away the
>>> sources.
>>
>
> The numarray User's Manual was derived from the Numpy manual that LLNL
> originally sponsored David Ascher to write (if that is incorrect I'm sure
> Paul will correct me). We dutifully propagated the legal notice in the
> original to the numarray version. Although IANAL I'll note that the
> text seems to permit changes by others, but it also seems mis-worded as
> it refers to software, not documentation regarding the rights. What that
> really means in the end I'm not sure.
>
> In any case, Jochen Kupper (I hope I have that right) converted the 
> format
> from Framemaker to the Python document latex style. The source for the
> numarray version is currently on sourceforge (under the numarray/doc
> directory). I'll also note much of the capabilities in scipy_core are
> very similar to those of numarray. There are differences, though I don't
> believe it would take a great deal of work to udpate the numarray version
> to reflect these (e.g. the changes in the types system, how rank-0
> issues, the C-API, object array details and the names of the standard
> packages within scipy_core.)
>
>> OK, thanks Paul. That may have implications for you, Travis, if you are
>> planning to base your SciPy Core book on the existing NumPy 
>> documentation.
>>
> From what I've seen of it, I don't believe it is based at all on the
> original manual or any derivative, but I'll leave that for Travis to
> comment further on.
>
> Perry
>
>
Perry,

It would be helpful if you gave some indication of your organization's 
intention with respect to numarray.

Will it be maintained, as in the past, fully in the public domain and 
without charge for either the code or the API information needed to make 
use of the code?

New versions have been produced every few months, will this continue?

Colin W.