Robert Dodier wrote:
> Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
>
> On 5/6/07, Alasdair McAndrew <amca01 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Attached is a simple program to implement Brent's method of finding a
> > root of a non-linear equation. It uses a combination of the bisection
> > and secant methods, and inverse quadratic interpolation, to provide
> > guaranteed convergence to a root, using the best possible method at each
> > step. My program is just a Maxima translation of the C program given in
> > "Numerical Recipes", which can be found at
> > http://www.nrbook.com/b/bookcpdf/c9-3.pdf.
>
> Alasdair, thanks for your interest in this topic. I'm sorry to be a
> wet blanket here but the Maxima project can only accept code
> released under a GPL-compatible license or in the public domain.
> The NR code is neither, and so derived works (e.g. translations)
> are not.
>
> Not sure if you intended to offer the code as a contribution to the
> project, but I thought it best to raise the issue anyway.
>
> Here is what the Numerical recipes web site says:
> (http://www.numerical-recipes.com/infotop.html)
> Question: "You want to translate some (or all) the Numerical Recipes
> routines to a different computer language, and then redistribute the
> resulting translations."
> Answer: "If you are a licensed NR user, you can make any personal use
> you want on a licensed screen, including translating NR to another
> computer language. However, you can't redistribute the translations in any
> manner, since they are 'derivative works' and still subject to our
> copyright."
This is funny. I would say that the all NR is derivative work of others. You
can find the similar programs elsewhere in earlier books.
They just collected all the work in one place. This a kind of textbook.
best regards
V