[Debichem-devel] SHELX

[George M. Sheldrick]

Dear Michael,

I have been distributing SHELX in source form since the early 1970's, long
before Open Source took off. Although I fully support the idea of Open 
Source, I prefer to distribute SHELX myself so that I get more feedback
and retain a little control. My university also expects 'for-profit' users
to pay a license fee so that I cover my costs (we do not make a profit).
Since my procedure is a little different from what is now generally 
understood as 'Open Source', I always describe the program 'open source'.
If someone wishes to obtain the program, they should simply fax or post a
signed application form to me, just as they used to do when I distributed
the program on punched cards and later magnetic tape. No requests are
refused and I try to answer all emails myself, but I also expect the users
to read the manual!

Best wishes, George

Prof. George M. Sheldrick FRS
Dept. Structural Chemistry,
University of Goettingen,
Tammannstr. 4,
D37077 Goettingen, Germany
Tel. +49-551-39-3021 or -3068
Fax. +49-551-39-22582


On Fri, 9 Jul 2010, Michael Banck wrote:

> Dear Prof. Sheldrick,
> 
> I am the lead developer of the Debichem project, which aims to package
> all useful chemistry-related software packages for the Debian
> (http://www.debian.org) system.
> 
> I just came across your article "A short history of SHELX" in Acta
> Cryst. A64, page 112.  In the abstract, you write that this article
> should be cited when "one or more of the open-source SHELX programs
> [...] are employed in the course of a crystal-structure determination".
> 
> As you probably know, "open-source" as defined by the Open Source
> Initiative (http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd) includes (among others)
> free redistribution to any person, company or institution and the
> availablity of source code (as well as permitting the source code to be
> modified and those modifications to be distributed as well).
> 
> On http://shelx.uni-ac.gwdg.de/SHELX/, I could only find a registration
> form for free academic use of SHELX-97; will the code obtained via this
> form be open-source in the above sense?  If not, where else could we
> find an open-source version of SHELX as mentioned in your paper?  If
> yes, is it fine if I request the code in the name of the Debichem/Debian
> project?
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Michael Banck
> 
>