Licensing of plugin that reuses a lot of code
Posted: 12 Aug 2014 18:04
I developed a new layout plugin because I needed it for my own research. When I say "I developed" I actually mean that I took a lot of code from the original ForceAtlas 2 Layout plugin, stripped some of the code that I didn't need, and added some other stuff that I was missing. It is basically an adapted version of the ForceAtlas 2 plugin.
What does it do? In my research I make event graphs, where events are represented by nodes and the relationships between events are represented by arcs. I wanted to layout the events in chronological order on the x-axis, and I use the y-axis to distinguish between parallel subsequences. Using some of the code of the Force Atlas 2 plugin, the layout plugin that I made uses a user-supplied double variable to put the events in chronological order, and it pushes different subsequences away from each other on the y-axis, using the exact same logic as the original Force Atlas plugins. If you have a lot of events this feature saves a lot of time in making the event graphs look organized.
Anyway, I think it is time to share the plugin, and I have a question about licensing and acknowledgements. I found the standard license text that is also in the original Force Atlas 2 plugin. Am I just supposed to use that one and put my own name in there? How do I indicate in a good way that the code was actually mostly taken from the Force Atlas 2 plugin? I would also like to acknowledge the authors of the GeoLayout plugin, because I took quite some inspiration from their code.
Thank you in advance for the help.
What does it do? In my research I make event graphs, where events are represented by nodes and the relationships between events are represented by arcs. I wanted to layout the events in chronological order on the x-axis, and I use the y-axis to distinguish between parallel subsequences. Using some of the code of the Force Atlas 2 plugin, the layout plugin that I made uses a user-supplied double variable to put the events in chronological order, and it pushes different subsequences away from each other on the y-axis, using the exact same logic as the original Force Atlas plugins. If you have a lot of events this feature saves a lot of time in making the event graphs look organized.
Anyway, I think it is time to share the plugin, and I have a question about licensing and acknowledgements. I found the standard license text that is also in the original Force Atlas 2 plugin. Am I just supposed to use that one and put my own name in there? How do I indicate in a good way that the code was actually mostly taken from the Force Atlas 2 plugin? I would also like to acknowledge the authors of the GeoLayout plugin, because I took quite some inspiration from their code.
Thank you in advance for the help.