Re: Licences

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

"Lucretia" <lucretia9@lycos.co.uk> writes:
> After having waited absolutely ages for a GNAT from AdaCore, I was
> supremely pissed off that they GPL'd it, as the extra tools are only
> available through them. Now, I'm working on some code that wanted to
> (attempt to ;-D) make money on.
>
> So, I can continue to use FSF GNAT (I think). Is GCC 4.x going to get
> the GPL treatment as well?

I am aware of no plans to change the license in the FSF tree.  In any
case, AdaCore cannot make such a change by themselves; only the FSF
can do that.  AdaCore made a license change only on their own internal
sources, by applying a clause of the GPL.

> Also, using the gurrent GCC, if I distribute a binary, do I have to
> link it to a shared libada (or whatever it's called)?

You don't have to use libgnat, you can use pragma No_Run_Time, but
then most of the benefits of using Ada vanish.  Whether you link
statically or dynamically makes no difference from a licensing point
of view; it is a purely technical decision.  In any case, if you use
the GMGPL libgnat, you must provide the sources of libgnat, or point
your customers to gcc.gnu.org where they can obtain the sources for
themselves.  You do not have to provide the sources for your program.

If you use a libgnat under GPL, then you must provide the sources for
you program, too.  But you can still sell your program (and services
surrounding your program: hint, hint) for money.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.