[Debichem-devel] Re: Bug#410220: ITP: wxmacmolplt -- The MacMolPlt molecular visualization program

[Michael Banck]

Hi Brett,

On Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 10:44:35AM -0600, Brett Bode wrote:
> * Package name    : wxmacmolplt
>   Version         : 6.3.0
>   Upstream Author : Brett Bode <brett at scl.ameslab.gov>
> * URL             : http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/MacMolPlt/
> * License         : GPL
>   Programming Lang: C++
>   Description     : The MacMolPlt molecular visualization program
> 
>  MacMolPlt is designed to display the input and output of
>  the GAMESS quantum chemistry package. It produces animations
>  and/or publication quality output from a variety of input file
>  formats.

That looks really interesting, do you need a sponsor or would you like
to include macmolplt into the Debichem project? Debichem is a
collaborative packaging project for chemical and related software.

One question: On the homepage you cite above the following disclaimer
can be found:

| Remember:
| 
| MacMolPlt is free, but if you use it I require that you send me a note
| (E-Mail or Snail mail) telling me what you like and what you don't like
| (What's not to like ;-).
| 
| If you use MacMolPlt for published work you are required to reference
| this paper:
| 
| Bode, B. M. and Gordon, M. S. J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 16, 1998, 133-138.

About the first, is this still valid with current wxwindows code?  I am
not sure this restrictino is compatible with the GPL (not sure about the
DFSG), at least an exception would need to be added to COPYING.

About the second paragraph, is this one still applicable as well? I
always wondered whether mandating citing in licenses is alright with the
DFSG, I think this should be rather enforced via academic peer pressure
than software licensing.


cheers,

Michael