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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,9a5f3bd162009c01,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!atl-c08.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!pc03.usenetserver.com!ALLTEL.NET-a2kHrUvQQWlmc!not-for-mail Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:57:37 -0500 From: "Marc A. Criley" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: GNAT GPL 2005: Too clever by half? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <70e0e$4331acfc$4995583$14979@ALLTEL.NET> X-Complaints-To: abuse@usenetserver.com Organization: UseNetServer.com X-Trace: 70e0e4331acfca13cf02614979 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:5008 Date: 2005-09-21T13:57:37-05:00 List-Id: Maybe AdaCore is smarter than we've realized, intentionally or perhaps accidentally? Consider this scenario: Consider an Ada enthusiast or one-man-shop (OMS) developing a particular kind of product in Ada. The "particular kind", or nature, of this product is such that Ada's role is only as its implementation language. To a user it's just a black-box piece of software. Unless it actually says "Ada" or they see the source code, they would never know Ada was involved. Products such as container libraries, math libraries, etc., are not what I'm talking about, since you either have to interact with them as Ada, or be linking in the Ada runtime (and have to conform to any of its licensing constraints). So, accounting software, CAD programs, word processors, that sort of stand-alone black-box application is what I'm going to address. I'll use DTraq as an example, since it's the one I'm most familiar with :-) DTraq is a data logging, monitoring, and playback application usable for development and test. The current version (0.986a) does Ada code generation and requires compiling and linking that code, but the next release (scheduled for the end of this year) eliminates all that and will appear as a black box application to the user. DTraq only works with Ada applications right now, but will be enhanced to support C++ and Java in the coming year. DTraq has been licensed under the GMGPL, as has most other GNAT aided software developed by Ada enthusiasts. If I were to use the new GNAT GPL 2005, I would pretty much be driven to changing that to the full GPL. And then it struck me. So what? If I were a greedy capitalist, that might even be a good thing, in a bizarre, twisted way. If I sell DTraq to some customer, I'll have to provide them the source code. If they're not an Ada shop, if no one there knows Ada, if they couldn't care less about Ada, then I don't care that they have the source. If they want support and maintenance, they're going to have to have a support contract with McKae--the fact that they have the entire source code base for the product is irrelevant to our business relationship, since they're not going to do anything with it. If the customer does themselves develop non-free Ada or even GMGPL software, they can't reuse any of my software because it's under the GPL (unless they want to starting GPLing their own stuff). If they do, then it's the usual GPL license violation, and you call down upon them the wrath of Stallman. So here's the net result: If you're hard over to free software, GPL GNAT 2005 is just fine and dandy, since it'll force people to make their software free (libre), which is the goal of the FSF. On the other hand, if you're a greedy proprietary capitalist developing a product whose external functionality and use is language independent, GPL GNAT 2005 is also just fine, since by the requisite GPLing of your application, it will keep the vast majority of your customers from taking your source code and doing anything other than reading it. All they'll be able to do with your product then is _use_ it (and perhaps modify it on their own, _if_ they have the expertise to do so). I'm mulling this over... -- Marc A. Criley -- McKae Technologies -- www.mckae.com -- DTraq - XPath In Ada - XML EZ Out