Several months after it was first published, I recently stumbled across an interesting post by Michael Tiemann of the OSI about the way in which two projects R (a statistical package) and GRASS (a geographical information system) are co-evolving:
GRASS and R both offer integration modules so that a GRASS-centric user can use R, or an R-centric user can fully exploit GRASS. Both GRASS and R also implement integration modules for the PostgreSQL database, and PostgreSQL also returns the favor so that a PostgreSQL-centric user can reach into both GRASS and R (and vice-versa).
This to me is an example of the kind of peaceful co-existence which open source encourages. Each of these communities has a very different view of the world, leading to different ways of representing, accessing, querying and storing data. Three-way interoperability means that all three communities have the best of all three worlds. PostgreSQL is, of course, a much larger player than R and GRASS, but using it as their back end R and GRASS have access to a much larger pool of optimisation effort than they otherwise would.
Key to this, of course, is the use of compatible open source licenses by both R and GRASS.
Why do you say “Key to this, of course, is the use of the GPL by both R and GRASS.” Surely you mean “Key to this, of course, is the use of compatible open source licenses by both R and GRASS.”
You’re right Ross.
Fixed.
cheers
stuart