remove weka dependency

[mssammon]

weka has GPL2 license, not compatible with academic use. Can we remove, or at least separate, the Weka dependency?

[christos-c]

Weka is used for SVM I think but also has a very specific version o thef java_cup dependency.

[mssammon]

not using liblinear for svm?
weka is the source of the java_cup lbjava needs (i.e. there isn't an alternative)?

[danyaljj]

As far as I know it is not used directly in any of the libraries. There's only one wrapper to call its classifiers.

On another line, what issue does it create? I mean, why can't we say "if you use any component which uses external tools you're subject to their license"?

[mssammon]

That might be a way out but I suspect it would be subject to serious debate. The simplest way to resolve it is to avoid the dependency. Here's one take: http://blog.milkingthegnu.org/2008/04/gpl-for-dummies.html -- and the bottom line is the intent of the creator in using GPL in the first place.

[danyaljj]

Well I don't think "avoiding dependency" is possible. In fact recently Dan's undergrad student was working to add more external libraries (e.g. for neural networks). External dependencies are unavoidable.

[mssammon]

We can use any dependency that uses a LGPL-like license, so it's not a blanket avoidance.