[fitsbits] Question(s) regarding development of proprietary FITS manipulation software. . .

[Brad Cavanagh]

On 7/31/07, Maren Purves <m.purves at jach.hawaii.edu> wrote:
> gberz3 wrote:
>
> > I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
> > files.  However, they want a 100% proprietary solution.  They know the
> [...]
> >
> > My question to the group is:  What librar(y/ies) would you all
> > recommend for working with FITS files?  Currently I've been looking
> > at  "http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html".
>
> sorry, can't help it, but to me 100% proprietary and using the
> fitsio library are a contradiction in terms.

Well, to be fair the cfitsio license allows it, unless the standard
compress.c file or the wcsutil.c file is used, in which case any code
written that uses the cfitsio library has to conform to the GNU Public
License. If they both the wcsutil_alternate.c and compress_alternate.c
files to compile the library, then they can do whatever they want with
the library and their code, including making it 100% proprietary.

Cheers,
 Brad.