[Biojava-l] Java code ???

[Ewan Birney]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2000, Thomas Down wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 20, 2000 at 08:54:46PM -0800, Ann Loraine wrote:
> > I also have been writing a lot of Java code - mostly for 
> > Berkeley Drosopila Genome Project Web site.
> > 
> > The code I've written for BDGP uses a widget set from Neomorphic
> > Software, which I highly recommend by the way!  But I also
> > work there part-time so I'm a bit biased :-)
> > 
> > Which brings me to a question ... can/should we contribute code
> > that requires a third-party, non-open source library?  
> > 
> > I think it would be fine to contribute the code I wrote at 
> > BDGP to biojava.org - I just wonder if doing this would go
> > against the spirit of the project.
> > 
> > What do you think?
> 
> Well, as I said before, I'm certainly interested
> to see any code that's around...
> 
> I'd prefer any BioJava core materials to stay open
> source if at all possible (right now I'm thinking
> about LGPL, or possibly MPL, for the packages
> developed here).  On the other hand, this doesn't
> necessarily rule out code with proprietary dependancies,
> so long as it's not essential.


I think the (only) requirement that people at bioperl would
have on a biojava group running with teh biojava domain name
and using our servers is that the license was open source.
That does not rule out dependencies, but I would place dependent
software in a separate repository. You do not want the entire
package dependent on something (and it should not be anyway
dependent on a a graphical view - the biological objects should
be useable in a standalone manner).

Remember what a mess the biowdigets consortium got into by not
being open source. Do not go the way of restrictive licences.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ewan Birney. Work: +44 (0)1223 494992. Mobile: +44 (0)7970 151230
<birney@sanger.ac.uk>
http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Users/birney/
-----------------------------------------------------------------