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Show HN: Visual Python – open source visual Python code generator (github.com/visualpython)
42 points by visualpython on July 5, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 10 comments


> Visual Python is a data analytics solution for both Programmers & Non-programmers.

Intuitively: don't. You won't be able to optimize for both, and the requirements and perspectives from the respective groups will differ greatly. Its more or less rule number one: if you build a tool, let it do one thing, and let it do that one thing right. If you seriously want to do both, build one core library and add different frontends for the target groups.


you mean visual anaconda?


Note that the license chosen is GPL v3. The code generated by the tool would also be GPL v3, which means that any larger work where the generated code is used may also be bound by the same license. I would request the authors to review the licensing terms. Thanks.


No, I don't believe that's the case.

(plenty of IDEs are covered under GPL). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_integrated_devel...


Yes. But. For an iDE you write your own code. For a visual tool like this, I wonder if the “code” is already written and it just spits out code snippets it contains. So the code would all be GPL?


See my comment here (on the same thread):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27736089


They are. However, when code is generated there need to be an explicit clause in the license terms for the same. Else, by default, the generated code would be subject to the same license, GPL v3 in this case. I therefore recommend the authors to review the licensing terms with lawyers.


We never even think that the license can also be applied to the code generated by the tool. We do not want users to worry about the license when using our tool, so we will definitely review the terms and make sure the code generated by the tool has no license restrictions. Thanks all for the comments !


Found this for GPLv2. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.en.htm...

> In what cases is the output of a GPL program covered by the GPL too?

> Only when the program copies part of itself into the output.

As I understand, you need an explicit clause when you copy part of GPL code. Not sure for GPLv3. Anyway, I also recommend consulting a lawyer.


+1

In this case, unless shown otherwise, the assumption should be that the program is copying parts of itself to the output. Whatever the program is generating is likely to carry pieces which are a part of the program ... unless it is evident that the code being output is generated entirely from a separate part which is not under GPL.

The situation for Github Copilot [1] may be different where each output by it may be argued to be novel, however, even there the answer is not fully settled [2].

[1] https://copilot.github.com/

[2] Excerpt from [1] above: "Does GitHub Copilot recite code from the training set? GitHub Copilot is a code synthesizer, not a search engine: the vast majority of the code that it suggests is uniquely generated and has never been seen before. We found that about 0.1% of the time, the suggestion may contain some snippets that are verbatim from the training set. ..."




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