The CRAPL: license your academic code

Matt Might (who knows when) came up with a license for academics to release code used for research. You all know the code: it barely works, comes with little documentation, and you’re really embarrassed every time someone asks to see it in relation to a publication. The solution? The CRAPL–the Community Research and Academic Programming License.

He says “Academics rarely release code, but I hope a license can encourage them,” and I am strongly encouraged. Although I’ve “published” the code used in my MS thesis in an appendix, it’s not available for download anywhere. When I have a few hours sometime I plan on getting things moving with this. For the good of science!

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