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From: Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Thoughts on AdaCore maintaining GCC-incompatible GNAT sources
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:41:00 +0000
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Date: 2011-01-21T20:41:00+00:00
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"Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)" <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> writes:

> The matter here would be one like Fritz Wuehler pointed in another
> reply to this thread: licensing. I am not sure every one would enjoy
> to pay for a GPLed application they could not really use for their own
> purpose.  Funding the FSF would be paying for something you could not
> use freely.  That is far less attractive.

That is just so not true.

The FSF compiler runtimes (well, I only really know about the Ada one;
but see [1], [2]) in general contain text such as this in s-oslib.ads
from GCC 4.5.0:

-- As a special exception under Section 7 of GPL version 3, you are
-- granted additional permissions described in the GCC Runtime Library
-- Exception, version 3.1, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

which is explicitly designed to allow you to use GCC to develop non-free
programs.

GNAT Pro runtimes contain older wording with the same intent (they may
have been updated; haven't looked recently).

GNAT GPL runtimes have this wording removed by an automated process
during the release process (I say this because you can see the blank
lines where it used to be!) and therefore can not be used to develop
non-free programs.

[1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LibGCCException
[2] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception-faq.html