NR used some slightly modified code from public-domain sources, so its
derivative-works restriction is a bit rich.
> Could you point me to a recent discussion thread please?
A search will turn up plenty. Here's one for example.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=607928
The discussion started as soon as the book appeared.
> One possible way here would be a "clean room" implementation: creating
> the code *from scratch* using the algorithm published in the book. The
> algorithm itself is not copyrightable. But changing existing code is
> still subject of the original copyright.
A clean room implementation will probably be better anyway.
>>>> Patches are accepted, or even pointers to an alternative
>>>> implementation that is unencumbered.
>
> There are two major places: cfitsio and rtd/generic. For cfitsio, newer
> versions don't contain NR code anymore.
>
> For rtd/generic, I will create a pull request on
> https://github.com/Starlink/skycat based on the work that ESO did to
> make MIDAS NR-free.
Sounds good.
Malcolm
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