From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,TO_NO_BRKTS_FROM_MSSP autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c9ea66d3dcd0bfcf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-04-27 11:03:04 PST Path: newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!24.226.1.12!feed.cgocable.net!out.nntp.be!propagator-dallas!news-in-dallas.newsfeeds.com!newsranger.com!www.newsranger.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Ted Dennison References: Subject: Re: GNAT license rational (was [ANNOUNCE] XML/Ada 0.5 released) Message-ID: <5viG6.1064$SZ5.86996@www.newsranger.com> X-Abuse-Info: When contacting newsranger.com regarding abuse please X-Abuse-Info: forward the entire news article including headers or X-Abuse-Info: else we will not be able to process your request X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsranger.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 14:02:41 EDT Organization: http://www.newsranger.com Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 18:02:41 GMT Xref: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:6988 Date: 2001-04-27T18:02:41+00:00 List-Id: In article , Vincent Marciante says... >We need a comment from RBKD regarding the rational for the special exception >in GNAT's license. I was around before that exception existed. What happened was that someone piped up saying that their lawyers wouldn't allow them to use Gnat for their project, as they were of the opinion that linking GPL-ed packages into their program would require them to make the whole program GPL-ed. Thus to prevent this scenario, all the package sources that aren't just part of the compiler itself had an exception put in to allow linking them into an executable without invoking any provisions of the GPL. That way GNAT itself is GPL'ed, but programs created with it don't have to be. Now if you are asking why this was done, rather than only allowing paying customers that exception like they are talking about doing for the XML parser, you would have to get a ruling from ACT on that one. But it really is their call to make either way. --- T.E.D. homepage - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html home email - mailto:dennison@telepath.com