[SciPy-dev] implementing IDL, Matlab, etc. functionality

[Joe Harrington]

> Is it clear that the EULA forbids translating a limited part of a
> user's IDL file into another syntax?

No, a user's code is clearly not RSI's property.  However, our lawyers
made the point that a code converter could easily be configured as a
front-end to python, and for any program it converted 100%
successfully, it would be a reimplementation of IDL and thus would be
prohibited by the reverse engineering clause.  They felt that making
even part of a partial reimplementation could be argued as being
against the reverse engineering clause of the license, based on these
(bogus, in my opinion) court precedents.  At least, it wouldn't be
grounds for immediate dismissal of a lawsuit.

The only relevant statement in the license is:

"You may not, however, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the
Software."

The full license may be read here:

ftp://ftp.rsinc.com/pub/idl_6.1/info/license.txt

Can someone post a pointer to Matlab's license?

--jh--