* GNAT availability @ 1995-03-22 20:56 walt 1995-03-23 18:04 ` Dave Retherford 1995-03-25 17:45 ` Robert Dewar 0 siblings, 2 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: walt @ 1995-03-22 20:56 UTC (permalink / raw) 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) ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: GNAT availability 1995-03-22 20:56 GNAT availability walt @ 1995-03-23 18:04 ` Dave Retherford 1995-03-25 9:31 ` Keith Thompson 1995-03-25 17:45 ` Robert Dewar 1 sibling, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Dave Retherford @ 1995-03-23 18:04 UTC (permalink / raw) In article <3kq2u6$b59@watnews1.watson.ibm.com>, <walt@owgvm3.vnet.ibm.com> wrote: > GNAT appears to be public domain. Am I correct in this? > Yes. > If so, where can one download a copy of it? > ftp to: cs.nyu.edu/pub/gant There are distributions for quite a few platforms (e.g. DOS, OS/2, Linux, SunOS, etc.) > Thanks in advance. > > Walt Johnson Glad to help. Dave. -- _________________________________________________________________________ | Dave Retherford | "Remember this: While somebody is | | Daver@Starbase.Neosoft.com | is down there kissin' your butt, | | Dave_Retherford@hso.link.com | they could just as easily be bitin' | | (work) | it too." -- Forestt Gump | |_________________________________|_______________________________________| ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: GNAT availability 1995-03-23 18:04 ` Dave Retherford @ 1995-03-25 9:31 ` Keith Thompson 1995-03-26 17:13 ` Michael Feldman 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Keith Thompson @ 1995-03-25 9:31 UTC (permalink / raw) In <3ksd85$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'. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: GNAT availability 1995-03-25 9:31 ` Keith Thompson @ 1995-03-26 17:13 ` Michael Feldman 0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: Michael Feldman @ 1995-03-26 17:13 UTC (permalink / raw) 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 ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: GNAT availability 1995-03-22 20:56 GNAT availability walt 1995-03-23 18:04 ` Dave Retherford @ 1995-03-25 17:45 ` Robert Dewar 1995-03-26 13:23 ` David Weller 1 sibling, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Robert Dewar @ 1995-03-25 17:45 UTC (permalink / raw) 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. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: GNAT availability 1995-03-25 17:45 ` Robert Dewar @ 1995-03-26 13:23 ` David Weller 0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: David Weller @ 1995-03-26 13:23 UTC (permalink / raw) 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. -- Frustrated with C, C++, Pascal, Fortran? Ada95 _might_ be for you! For all sorts of interesting Ada95 tidbits, run the command: "finger dweller@starbase.neosoft.com | more" (or e-mail with "finger" as subj.) if u cn rd ths, u r gd enuf to chg to Ada :-) ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~1995-03-26 17:13 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 6+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 1995-03-22 20:56 GNAT availability walt 1995-03-23 18:04 ` Dave Retherford 1995-03-25 9:31 ` Keith Thompson 1995-03-26 17:13 ` Michael Feldman 1995-03-25 17:45 ` Robert Dewar 1995-03-26 13:23 ` David Weller
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