> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Thomas Bushnell, BSG) > Date: 16 Dec 2002 22:08:07 -0800
> > I'm uncertain how gnuplot got its name...anyone know? > http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/ 1.2 How did it come about and why is it called gnuplot? The authors of gnuplot are: Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley, Russell Lang, Dave Kotz, John Campbell, Gershon Elber, Alexander Woo and many others. The following quote comes from Thomas Williams: I was taking a differential equation class and Colin was taking Electromagnetics, we both thought it'd be helpful to visualize the mathematics behind them. We were both working as sys admin for an EE VLSI lab, so we had the graphics terminals and the time to do some coding. The posting was better received than we expected, and prompted us to add some, albeit lame, support for file data. Any reference to GNUplot is incorrect. The real name of the program is "gnuplot". You see people use "gnuplot" quite a bit because many of us have an aversion to starting a sentence with a lower case letter, even in the case of proper nouns and titles. gnuplot is not related to the GNU project or the FSF in any but the most peripheral sense. Our software was designed completely independently and the name "gnuplot" was actually a compromise. I wanted to call it "llamaplot" and Colin wanted to call it "nplot." We agreed that "newplot" was acceptable but, we then discovered that there was an absolutely ghastly pascal program of that name that the Computer Science Dept. occasionally used. I decided that "gnuplot" would make a nice pun and after a fashion Colin agreed. 1.3 Does gnuplot have anything to do with the FSF and the GNU project? Gnuplot is neither written nor maintained by the FSF. It is not covered by the General Public License, either. It used to be distributed by the FSF, however, due to licensing issues it is no longer. Gnuplot is freeware in the sense that you don't have to pay for it. However it is not freeware in the sense that you would be allowed to distribute a modified version of your gnuplot freely. Please read and accept the Copyright file in your distribution. -- Good luck -Boris When I was little, I went into a pet shop and they asked how big I'd get. -- Rodney Dangerfield
