Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] execute MATLAB code with mlab_call

[Greg Troxel]

Dev Ramudit <address@hidden> writes:

>> I wonder if you could make this work with octave.  MATLAB is decidedly
>> non-Free, and thus I'd expect that any support to interoperate with
>> MATLAB probably wouldn't be eligble for integration into the tree.
>>
>> How do you link this in such a way that you can follow the GPL and
>> distribute it?
>
> It seems like octave has a similar interface
> (http://wiki.octave.org/wiki.pl?CategoryExternal under OctaveEngine),
> which could be used in a way very similar to the code I have.
>
> I know that there exists other projects under open licenses that use
> the MATLAB engine API (pylab, mlabwrap, ruby-matlab, etc.). I'm not
> well versed in licensing issues, but reading through the MATLAB
> software license I don't see any issues with linking to the shared
> objects the interface provides. I'm very inexperienced in this area,
> so please let me know if I'm incorrect.

There are several issues.  One is following the proprietary program's
license, and another is complying with the GPL, which requires that all
of any derivative work be licensed under the GPL.

Then, there's the cultural issue of accomodating non-Free software
within the context of a Free Software project.  Many people believe that
it's not helpfully on the path to a world where we can do everything we
want with Free software, and that seems to be more or less the view of
the FSF.  Of course it depends on your goals, but I thought I should
point out this issue.