What is Guppi?
==============

Guppi is a GPLed Gnome-based guile-scriptable plot program with
integrated statistics capabilities.

It is still in an early stage of development.  The current functionality is
very limited.  The source code is the only documentation. 


Contact Info
============

The Guppi web page is at http://www.gnome.org/guppi.

To subscribe to the Guppi mailing list, send a message with "subscribe"
as the subject to guppi-list-request@gnome.org.

Bug reports and suggestions can be formally submitted via the Gnome
bug-tracking system at http://bugs.gnome.org.  Keep in mind, though, that
Guppi is a very, very new piece of alpha-level software.  We *know* that
there are lots of bugs and that there is a long list of missing features.
The only bug reports that would be really useful to us would involve subtle
issues.  (If you aren't sure whether or not your problem is subtle, wait a
few releases before making a report.)

Other correspondence about Guppi can be sent to Jon Trowbridge <trow@gnu.org>.

If you are interested in Guppi and live in the Chicago area, drop me
(Jon) a line.


Helping Out
===========

If you would like to assist in Guppi's development, please do!  There
is plenty to do, even if you aren't a programmer.

If you are a programmer and have specific enhancements and/or fixes
that you want to do, you should probably contact Jon Trowbridge
<trow@gnu.org> and/or guppi-list *before* you start.  Guppi is young
enough to be in constant flux, and unannounced patches may be rejected
because they do not integrate well with Guppi's planned future
development.

(By the way, I know that my C coding practices are not even close to
the GNU style guidelines.  Please humor me on this issue.)


Requirements
============

 * Helix Gnome or comparable
 
   Guppi's development tracks the Helix Gnome system.  RPMs and .debs
   are available: see www.helixcode.com.

   If you are building Guppi from sources, be sure to install the
   development packages as well.  (These usually have names like "foo-dev"
   or "libfoo123-dev".)

 * gnome-xml

 * gnome-print

 * Guile 1.3 or later.  Earlier versions will not work.  (Anything older
   than 1.3 is *really* old...)

* perl 5

  If you are building from the sources, you need some incarnation
  of perl 5.  Doesn't everyone have perl laying around?


Installation Notes
==================

Some platforms get unresolved symbols when building the shared
libraries.  A work around is to run configure with the
--enable-sluggish-linking option, which causes extra information to be
passed in when the libraries are being built.  (This fix imposes a
surprisingly large amount of extra overhead on unaffected platforms;
hence the name of the option.)


A Note About Licenses
=====================

As mentioned above, Guppi is distributed under the Gnu General Public
License (GPL).  If you are not familiar with the GPL, you can read
about in the file COPYING that you should have gotten along with
Guppi.  If you can't find that file, you can read the text of the GPL
at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

The GPL does not restrict your use of Guppi.  You may use it, modify
it, or extend it in any way you want.  However, any loadable modules
or plug-ins that are designed for use with Guppi are considered to be
extensions of Guppi, and hence may only be distributed under a license
that is legally compatible with the GPL.

Guppi is designed so that you can use its plotting features in your
own programs by linking in its libraries.  Be aware, though, that
Guppi's libraries are, like the Guppi application itself, distributed
under the terms of the GPL --- not the LGPL.  Therefore any program
that does so must be distributed under the GPL or a GPL-compatible
license.

You can learn about licenses that are and are not GPL-compatible at
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html.  If you have any
questions about whether or not your code is distributable, contact Jon
Trowbridge <trow@gnu.org>.
 