[Users] contributing to ET

[Frank Loeffler]

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 05:15:55PM -0500, Yosef Zlochower wrote:
>    Jeff Winicour, Maria Babiuc-Hamilton, Bela Szilagyi, and I are
> working on an arrangement for Cauchy-Characteristic extraction.
> We were thinking of releasing it as an open source tool under the
> Einstein toolkit and were wondering about the procedure for getting
> the code included and suggestions for licenses (we would like to
> request that users of the code cite appropriate references).

The usual procedure is to suggest inclusion on the users mailing list
users at einsteintoolkit.org. This ideally includes a short summary of what
that code is actually doing, and how to obtain this software currently,
so that others have an idea what this is about and can take a closer
look. Discussion on the email list and/or at the weekly phone call would
then decide about the inclusion. Of course it would be very nice if you
could introduce and present this in person at such a call, but that is
not a requirement.

Before that happens however, you should also made up your mind about the
license you want to use. Technically speaking, it has to be an open
source license to have it included in the Einstein Toolkit. However, not
all open source licenses are compatible with each other. Because of that,
we (the Einstein toolkit maintainers) suggest you to choose a license which
is compatible to the GPL license. You can get bit more information about
that at http://einsteintoolkit.org/about/licenses, especially a link to
a list of compatible licenses.

You mention that you would like to request that users of the code cite
appropriate references, and that is a very understandable wish. It is
important to care about wording here. It would be not compatible with
the GPL to try to enforce (by specifying that it is necessary) to cite
something. However, most of us wouldn't go to court anyway in case of
violations, so the Einstein Toolkit contains several modules which
choose one of the set of (GPL of various versions, LGPL), and merely
request users to cite something. This is described here:

http://einsteintoolkit.org/info/citing/index.php

This has in mind, that sometimes it is not even possible to cite
properly, even if one would like to. This, of course cannot be enforced,
and has to rely on the good will of the community. I suggest that you
see if this could fit your needs.

Of course feel free to ask any more questions. I personally would
welcome your contribution and I believe that I speak for many of us in
this.

Frank Loeffler

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