There are legal issues we need to be aware of in coming up with solutions.
I was scared that I was missing something.
I think there is a technical way out, however. I have only agreed to an IDL license. Nothing says I can't implement something that works like Matlab. Reverse engineering is legal, at least in the great state of New York, unless you sign that right away. So, it makes some sense to set up some trades: I can write a Matlab -> Python converter if you'll do it for IDL. All that's needed is for each side to provide examples of code in the proprietary language that they have written themselves, along with descriptions of what it does and sample inputs and outputs. That plus commercial books on the languages should provide all the information we need.
Sad, if we resort to this!
For specific packages, it makes more sense for people to do them from scratch or by wrapping existing open-source code.
There have been three packages in which I have used the controls "module", 1. scilab, which is open-source, but not free . (Scilab license forbids you to: use a composite or derived version of Scilab for commercial uses without asking INRIA authorization. http://scilabsoft.inria.fr/legal/index_legal.php?page=faq.html ) 2. GNU-Octave, which is free ( GPL) 3. Matlab, which is closed source. I guess I can look to Octave for pointers.
So, before anyone (else) goes diving into implementing something from IDL, Matlab, etc., please give consideration to these issues.
It's still early days in my implementation. I'm glad someone pointed this out to me this early! P.S.: Sorry about the previous incomplete mail. Guess keyboard shortcuts across multiple OS'es are beginning to hurt me! :)