[SciPy-dev] OpenCD

[Joe Cooper]

Alan G Isaac wrote:
> I could not help noticing that OpenCD has no
> scientific tools.  It seems the Enthought
> enhance Python distribution meets the inclusion criteria:
>   http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/criteria.php

You're probably right that it would be nice for some folks.  However, as 
it stands, I don't know how eager they'd be to add ~100MB of software 
(compressed...uncompressed it's probably twice that) that only 
scientific and mathematics folks would have a serious interest in. 
Number four on the list of qualifications:

4) Be mainstream and functional. It should compare favorably with 
proprietary alternatives.

While the packages in Enthon compare favorably to proprietary 
alternatives, and the next release will be quite slick, as such things 
go, with the addition of the IPython shell and some other new 
additions...I just don't know that "mainstream" is a word one would use 
to describe it.  Looking over the current applications, I don't see how 
we'd really fit into the mix...it's word processing, email and web, 
consumer-targetted multimedia apps, games, compression, etc.  Combine 
that with a huge package size, and we've got the makings of a big fat 
"NO!" from the OpenCD folks.

That said, if there is any interest, I'd be happy to work with someone 
involved in that group to make it happen.

Maybe with the next release coming in the next week or so, we should 
just focus on getting out the word to the folks who would have a real 
interest in it who may not be familiar with it, and making sure they are 
able to get it easily.