GNAT availability

GNAT availability

[walt]

GNAT appears to be public domain. Am I correct in this?

If so, where can one download a copy of it?

Thanks in advance.

Walt Johnson
Loral Federal Systems Group
Owego, New York 13827
waltj@lfs.loral.com
(607-751-2158)
FAX(607-751-6223)

Re: GNAT availability

[Dave Retherford]

In article <3kq2u6$b59@watnews1.watson.ibm.com>,
 <walt@owgvm3.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> GNAT appears to be public domain. Am I correct in this?
>
Yes. 
> If so, where can one download a copy of it?
> 

ftp to:	cs.nyu.edu/pub/gant

There are distributions for quite a few platforms (e.g. DOS, OS/2, Linux, 
SunOS, etc.)

> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Walt Johnson

Glad to help.

Dave.

-- 
 _________________________________________________________________________
| Dave Retherford                 | "Remember this:  While somebody is    |
|  Daver@Starbase.Neosoft.com     | is down there kissin' your butt,      |
|  Dave_Retherford@hso.link.com   | they could just as easily be bitin'   |
|       (work)                    | it too."  -- Forestt Gump             |
|_________________________________|_______________________________________|

Re: GNAT availability

[Keith Thompson]

In <3ksd85$muo@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> daver@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM (Dave Retherford) writes:
> In article <3kq2u6$b59@watnews1.watson.ibm.com>,
>  <walt@owgvm3.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> > GNAT appears to be public domain. Am I correct in this?
> >
> Yes. 

As some else will probably have posted already, GNAT is *not* public
domain; it's covered by the GNU "copyleft".

For many purposes they're about the same (you can freely copy it, read
the sources, etc.), but it's an important distinction.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith)  kst@thomsoft.com (kst@alsys.com still works)
TeleSoft^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Alsys^H^H^H^H^H Thomson Software Products
10251 Vista Sorrento Parkway, Suite 300, San Diego, CA, USA, 92121-2718
That's Keith Thompson *with* a 'p', Thomson Software Products *without* a 'p'.

Re: GNAT availability

[Michael Feldman]

In article <D5zp52.5A5@thomsoft.com>, Keith Thompson <kst@thomsoft.com> wrote:

[snip]

>As some else will probably have posted already, GNAT is *not* public
>domain; it's covered by the GNU "copyleft".

>For many purposes they're about the same (you can freely copy it, read
>the sources, etc.), but it's an important distinction.

The real distinction, for better or worse, is that a Public Domain
product can be picked up by anyone and improved, and the result can
then be commercialized with its source code kept proprietary. A
"copylefted" product can be improved and commercialized, but the
sources of the result must be released when the binaries are.

This is a two-eded sword, of course, but clever developers can and
(I hope) will capitalize on GNU software - including GNAT - anyway.
You can build tools on top as proprietary stuff, as long as you
don;t commingle your own sources with anything copylefted. 

For example, I am happy that Bill Yow's OS/2 PM binding is also copylefted, 
but if Bill wanted to, he could have made it a proprietary product.

We could also have developed our DOS GNAT editor as proprietary, but
chose to copyleft it instead. Actually, we _had_ to copyleft it,
because it is derived from our Ada/Ed editor, which is copylefted.:-)

One more thing: you can write code with GNAT or any GCC tool and keep it
proprietary, as long as you are careful to follow the GNU Library
License rules for linking in GNU libraries. The best known case of this
is NextStep, which was written with GCC but is _certainly_ proprietary.

Mike Feldman

Re: GNAT availability

[Robert Dewar]

GNAT is absolutely NOT public domain. It is copyrighted under the GPL (GNU
public license). However, the whole purpose of the GPL is to ensure that
you can always get a copy free with sources and freely redistribute it.

One of the problems with public domain is that anyone can make their own
copyrighted version (ever go into a music store and try to by a 
non-copyrighted version of Beethoven piano sonatas?) The GPL stops people
from doing this.

Most people think of public domain as something that is freely available
and will stay that way. Unfortunately public domain doesn't mean this, but
GPL does!

So, download away, copies of GNAT for a bunch of popular targets (and some
not so popular ones) can be ftp'ed from cs.nyu.edu -- look in directory
pub/gnat.

Re: GNAT availability

[David Weller]

In article <3l1krg$pig@gnat.cs.nyu.edu>, Robert Dewar <dewar@cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>One of the problems with public domain is that anyone can make their own
>copyrighted version (ever go into a music store and try to by a 
>non-copyrighted version of Beethoven piano sonatas?) The GPL stops people
>from doing this.
>
>Most people think of public domain as something that is freely available
>and will stay that way. Unfortunately public domain doesn't mean this, but
>GPL does!
>

Here's how I explain the GPL (I hope I've got the analogies right,
otherwise my mailbox is going to be filled with corrections :-):

Think of the GPL product as a pencil.

If somebody wants to sell you the pencil, they are welcome to do
that, but they must also give your the details on how the pencil was
made and how to make your own (source code)

If you use the pencil to write an epic novel, say War and Peace II,
you are welcome to publish the novel and get paid for it.  The pencil
was merely one of the tools you used.

If you use the plans for the pencil to insert a new kind of lead,
you're welcome to sell that new pencil to others -- but you must give
away the new plans as well.


-- 
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