Some immediate tasks for Carat

[olexandr-konovalov]

After the establishing of this repository, what would be useful to do before starting further modifications of the code:

• convert README to Markdown and add CI badges Convert README to Markdown and add CI badges #17
• establish carat website based on GitHub pages
• Add LICENSE file
• Add CITATION file
• ensure that carat compiles
• add configure script
• check issues from https://github.com/gap-packages/carat/issues, resolve or migrate them, and make a new release
  • incompatible file names for Windows Problems with deleting Carat directory on Windows gap-packages/CaratInterface#5
  • multiple compiler warnings Multiple warnings when compiling carat binaries gap-packages/CaratInterface#7
• add regression tests Add several initial tests and adjust Travis CI setup #6
• add Travis CI integration for builds on Linux and macOS Set up Travis CI integration #3
• add Codecov integration to gather code coverage reports Add several initial tests and adjust Travis CI setup #6
• add AppVeyor integration for builds on Windows (cygwin 32 and 64 bit) Set up AppVeyor #13
• establish ChangeLog file Establish ChangeLog file #15

[olexandr-konovalov]

Now since the new website works, one could add its URL to the README, and also setup the description and the URL for this repository.

[fingolfin]

@gaehler @DominikBernhardt do you have any idea about the licensing situation for this code?

[DominikBernhardt]

As far as the Carat code itself is concerned it was developed at RWTH under the supervision of Plesken and he told me I can change it and do with it what I want to improve it / get it on GitHub etc. So not sure which licence I should put..

[fingolfin]

Well, this would be IMHO rather important to resolve, as strictly speaking, code without any license cannot be used or distributed legally by anybody other than the copyright holder.

Perhaps you can ask him if he would be willing to put this code under the GPL, or some other open source license?

[olexandr-konovalov]

Thanks to @jamesjer, it seems we have found the lost COPYING file (see #33). @DominikBernhardt I know that you're very busy, but most of the critical tasks are not touching mathematical functionality of Carat, hopefully we may try to release in update all together? @gaehler would certainly like using new Carat in the GAP package.

[gaehler]

I did make a new release of my GAP package, bundling yesterdays GitHub version of CARAT, in order to get it into GAP 4.11. I can of course iterate this whenever there are significant improvements to CARAT, whether or not there is a formal release. Adding back the COPYING file would be good, and also replacing tex/index.html by a the current version with the corrected statistics in dimension 6 (I have found a copy of this file).