NeXus name clash (for info.)

[Ray Osborn]

on 2000/06/20 5:07 AM, Moreton-Smith, CM (Christopher) at
C.M.Moreton-Smith at rl.ac.uk wrote:

> I'm not sure that it's worth posting to the full group at the moment but it
> is worth pointing out that there is another NeXus (but with a small X) which
> may cause some confusion.  Even more confusingly it is also associated with
> Argonne and is part of the Globus project (data grids).  If you look at the
> MCS page
> 
> http://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov/division/software/
> 
> they even provide a link to download the software!
> 

There is even another nexus format (see
<http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/nexus/nexus.html>.  It is used for storing the
taxonomy of trees.  It is a little weird seeing other web pages talking
about the NEXUS format, but there is virtually no overlap in our respective
communities (and, though I say it myself, our web pages are better).
Similarly, the MCS Nexus is a communications library, not a format.

As Mark suggested, even with legal trademarks, you are allowed to use the
same name provided there can be no confusion with the trademarked product
(e.g. Nexus shampoo).  If the other NEXUS format were a commercial venture,
we might have to worry, but it's not so I think we should just ignore each
other as long as possible.

One help, however, would be to have the NeXus web pages easily accessible
from your respective facility pages, so that neutron/x-ray scatterers don't
get confused.  If you have web pages listing neutron resources or data
analysis software, please put a link to us or Mark's mirror site (I know
some of you already do).

Ray
-- 
Dr Ray Osborn                Tel: +1 (630) 252-9011
Materials Science Division   Fax: +1 (630) 252-7777
Argonne National Laboratory  E-mail: ROsborn at anl.gov
Argonne, IL 60439-4845