[R] Powell's unconstrained derivative-free nonlinear least squares routine, VA05AD

[Berwin A Turlach]

G'day David,

>>>>> "DK" == David Kinniburgh <dgk at bgs.ac.uk> writes:

    DK> I have used Mike Powell's optimization routine (VA05AD) from
    DK> the Harwell Subroutine Library (HSL) for more than 20 years.
    DK> [...]

    DK> Now that I have converted to R, I will miss my trusted
    DK> friend. I have started using nls() but have not accumulated
    DK> enough experience to compare the two. It would be great if
    DK> VA05AD could be an option in there (algorithm="Powell"). To
    DK> this end, I recently enquired of the custodians of the HSL
    DK> whether it would be possible to make it freely available to
    DK> the R community. The answer was basically 'yes'.  [...]
You better ask again. :-)

I presume VA05AD is in what is now called the HSL archive?  If it is
part of HSL 2004, then I don't see a way how it could be incorporated
into R given the information on their web site.  

Even for the HSL archive, it is stated at
http://hsl.rl.ac.uk/archive/hslarchive.html that

        "[...] HSL Archive codes are now available without charge to
        anyone, so long as they are not then incorporated into a
        commercial product; the latter is, of course, still permitted
        subject to a commercial licence. [...]"

which sounds as if it would be possible to interface (parts of) HSL
archive to R.  But then that URL goes on ans states:

        "Access to the Archive is by means of a short-lived individual
        password-controlled account. Potential users are asked for
        brief details of the use they intend to make of the package(s)
        they aim to download. Users are also asked to accept a
        conditions-of-use form, and are not permitted to divulge their
        userid and password to anyone else, nor to distribute any
        codes they obtain to a third party." 

IANAL, but as I understand the GPL, the last part of that sentence
will make it pretty impossible to incorporate into R (or distribute as
an R package) (parts of) the HSL archive routines.

Cheers,

        Berwin

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