Re: Answer of Request to AdaCore on licensing Status of GtkAda 2.4.0

["Ludovic Brenta" <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Steve Whalen a écrit :
> One thing I'd request would be for you to clearly distinguish between a
> GtkAda or Florist Debian package that is GMGPL and a pure GPL version,
> when I'm looking at packages in aptitude or a similar package
> management tool.

I posted a request for comments on 2006-07-14 on this group, where I
asked whether or not I should have parallel versions (GPL and GMGPL) of
libraries. I also said, I think clearly, that I was unwilling to take
this additional burden by myself; therefore, people in need GMGPL of
libraries in Debian were strongly advised to get in touch with me and
offer help.

I have received only three responses (in private), none of which
contained a definitive statement offering help. I conclude that nobody
cares enough to spend the time necessary to maintain the GMGPL
libraries (or else, they think I'll just do the work for them, for
free). So, unless someone steps up, I will simply replace the old GMGPL
versions with the newer pure-GPL ones. Those who need GMGPL libraries
will have to stick with Sarge, or become Debian maintainers themselves
and reintroduce the GMGPL libraries under different names.

I don't need encouragement, I need help.

> Whether having two visibly different package names, like maybe
> "GPLflorist" vs. "Florist " or GPLgtkAda vs. GtkAda is a good approach
> or something else would be better, I dont' know.

In the event that I keep parallel versions, the existing GMGPL packages
will keep their names but the newer packages will receive names
reflecting their version number, as per debian policy. I will consider
adding warning statements in the package descriptions, despite the fact
that all Debian users should know about, and are expected to read the
copyright file shipped with every package.

> I guess part of the request is not to "mix" Debian package dependencies
> between GMGPL packages, and the GPL packages.
>
> Is that hard to do? Have you already dealt with this?  I hate to add to
> your workload, but if we're going to have two sets of Ada toolkits that
> have such radically different permitted uses in Debian, we'll need help
> keeping the licenses straight.

No, keeping track of the licenses is only a small part of the burden;
if need be, we can add pragma License (GPL) statements and let GNAT
help us.

The biggest part of the workload is the transition and upgrade of all
packages (which I am now busy with), long-term maintenance, and
responding to bug reports.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.