Subject: Making Maxima be Mathematica compatible...
From: seberino at spawar
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 16:35:38 -0800
Richard
I noticed on one of your web pages that you mentioned
Wolfram previously was not too happy with a Mathematica
like parser. You seemed to imply he eventually lightened
up.
I've done a /little/ investigation of the legalities of
compatible software interfaces and it seems like
they are legal.... we are not copying Mathematica
source code but working with completely independent
code that just happens to be compatible.
The evidence this is OK is that Octave did Matlab
compatibility and the world did not end. Also,
you did MockMMA and you are still alive and didn't
get sued into homelessness.
Nevertheless, I'm very interested in the details of
your friction with Wolfram for obvious reasons. Please
elaborate on exactly what were their concerns and how
they tried to discourage you to pursue MockMMA, etc.
Chris