Re: gnuplot (was: Re: zsh outside of Emacs)

[Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com>]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:
...
>
> Do you mean gnuplot-mode has a missing/conflicting
> license, or gnuplot has? With gnuplot that should be
> OK as there are built-in modes for God knows what
> technologies that most likely have licenses all over
> the place, including none at all.

I don't know why it's not included.

Possible reasons:
* The Emacs developers don't think it's important enough.
* It has a non GPL license.
* The Emacs developers can't get copyright assignment for it.

The FSF generally require that Emacs coders assign copyright to them.
Unless it's a small change it's not considered good enough to just use
the GPLv3 license.  As far as I understand it, there are two reasons for
that.  Firstly, it enables them to easily re-license the code.  That
could happen if a legal flaw is found in a license, for example GPLv3
was created to rectify problems with GPLv2.  The other advantage is that
it prevents programmers from being able to relicense their contributions
and request that they're removed.

What sometimes happens is that an elisp package is initially unpopular.
But, the author gathers contributions from many people.  Then the
package becomes popular and people want it in the core or ELPA.  But by
that time the author can't find all the people to contact to ask for
copyright paperwork, or there are so many of them that it isn't
practical.

You could try asking for it to be included in the core it may be
possible.

BR,
Robert Thorpe