bioWidgets

[Peter Rice]

Danielle et jean Thierry-Mieg <mieg at kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr> writes:

> The only good reason for not distributing source code that I can
> conceive, is the hope  of marketing the product in the future. But
> then this should be made very explicit otherwise we may start by
> using the code than be trapped in a private-code, and have to
> reprogram it.
>
> This is exactly the situation at EBI which is activelly
> reprogramming the GCG toolbox

I think this must be a reference to the EGCG package of extensions to
GCG.  That's at the Sanger Centre (Hi Jean - yes, we did meet over at
the EBI :-). EGCG is now officially obsolete precisely because of
source code issues.

I am now working on EMBOSS will have all source code available under
GNU licensing.

My experience has been that making source code available greatly
encourages other contributions. Without source code - no more
contributions.

Also, using code or packages that are/may become commercial does
indeed risk being trapped and forced to abondon all previous efforts
and reprogram.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Rice                | Informatics Division, The Sanger Centre,
E-mail: pmr at sanger.ac.uk  | Wellcome Trust Genome Campus,
Tel: (44) 1223 494967     | Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, England
Fax: (44) 1223 494919     | URL: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Users/pmr/