# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Writing, Stories, Linguistics, Toponymy and other wordy stuff ! >  Star Name Generator

## Sagenlicht

I thought I repost it here, so it doesnt get lost.

In this threat, a discussion about name generators came up and some code flew around  :Smile: 

In the end isomage dug up a python code based on the ELITE Game name generator. I did wrap a GUI around it, so everyone can use it, if needed. Yeah, it actually comes a month late regarding our challenge, but I guess its still very usefull.

To use the tool you need to have Python, GTK and PyGTK installed, if you are using a windows machine.

Take a look here, for an installation guide. Just ignore the GIMP part.

The screenshot btw is from my linux machine, it looks more grey on windows. In addition dont worry about the german button, thats a language dependend button, it is just german for german users  :Smile:

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## Talroth

Interesting? what is the licensing on this and the usage of what it generates?

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## isomage

> Interesting? what is the licensing on this and the usage of what it generates?


The author of the original algorithm has released source code with no evident licensing terms: http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/text/index.htm  Copyright on that code should be assumed (but copyright doesn't apply to algorithms).

I'm the author of the Python code used as the basis of the present application, and I don't mind what anyone does with it (indeed, it's just a reimplementation of a reimplementation of the original algorithm, with the addition of an option for a randomized seed, so I couldn't morally justify any claim of ownership even if I wanted to).   My code has in turn been modified, and substantially added to, by Sagenlicht.

Sagenlicht has released his application under the Gnu General Public License (a free software license intended to keep open source open), and that basically means that if you take his code and include it in another program, you have to make that program's source code available if you distribute it.  

"Elite" might be a trademark, so I suppose it's conceivable that someone could make Sagenlicht remove the word from his GUI if they really wanted to.

I'm not a lawyer.

Given any set of names, one could infer a grammar and write a unique random name generator which would generate a superset of those names, so it would likely be impossible for the owner of a generator to defend a claim of ownership of generated names anyway (though names could conceivably be individually trademarked).

I say be nice, give credit where it's due, and do what you want  :Smile: 

P.S.  Well done, Sagenlicht!

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## Sagenlicht

Just to add to what isomage allready said:

If you choose to generate random names, you can do whatever you want with them. 

About ELITE. Yep I assume it is copyrighted, I did add its name cause as far as I understood isomage, the idea of the algorythm is based on it. I thought I'd give credit to it.

I wouldnt use the ELITE names for something you publish for commercial use.

And to quote isomage:



> I say be nice, give credit where it's due, and do what you want


If you use the generator for commercial use it would be nice to point back to it or at least mention isomage's name  :Smile: 

P.S.: Thanks isomage  :Wink:

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## isomage

> If you use the generator for commercial use it would be nice to point back to it or at least mention isomage's name 
> 
> P.S.: Thanks isomage



LOL, I didn't mean me! I didn't do anything.  Credit Ian Bell and David Braben for their most excellent game!   :Smile:

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## tiagocc0

Sagenlicht, could you consider releasing it under LGPL? This way people can use it on commercial applications without having to release all of their codes, however if any improvement is made to the LPGL code then this portion of code must be released.
So your tool will always be free while having commercial applications also able to improve on it.
If possible then I could make a C++ DLL and a Qt/C++ DLL so more people will be able to use it.

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## morgajel

This is outstanding- I'm currently working on a wordGenerator feature for my app and part of it is generating star names. Right now I'm generating them from this xml file but what you have will definitely help. Thanks for sharing!

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