Re: Win32Ada

[Dave Wood <dpw@cts.com>]

dewarr@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> 
> Note that a problem here is that the Win32 bindings are
> copyrighted by Microsoft. This is very annoying, but is
> a problem that has still not been resolved. I think the
> copyright is somewhat dubious, since it could be viewed
> as an attempt to copyright an interface dictated by
> external requirements, something that has not been
> supported by courts (e.g. in the Borland dispute).
> 
> But Intermetrics is taking the position that the copyright
> is valid, which means that it is not possible to post and
> distribute these bindings freely.

More specifically, distribution requires the licensee to
also license the Microsoft SDK, which is why we are able
to bundle it with ObjectAda.

The curious thing is how this happened in the first place.
If I understand the history correctly, Intermetrics made
the bindings through direct government funding, so how
did we get into a situation where taxpayers paid for
this, as they did GNAT, and yet have to get Bill's
permission to use it?  There must be some interesting
story there somewhere.

In any case, the real problem with Win32Ada is that it
is stuck at NT 3.5.  This is why we also make available
an alternate binding that actually evolves with the API
(and has no funny Gatesian license restrictions.)  Then 
again there are other options like the CLAW binding.

-- Dave Wood, Aonix
-- Product Manager, ObjectAda for Windows
-- http://www.aonix.com