Re: GNAT GPL Edition Maintenance and Upgrades

[Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>]

"Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam@spam.com> writes:

> But if I create an application using my GMGPL code and the GNAT GPL
> compiler, my program (and all of its source code) must become GPL, and
> I am not allowed to be "super-unselfish". Thus, I find the GNAT GPL
> compiler unsuitable for my purposes. I consider it inappropriate for
> any compiler to take such choices from me, and for any OS to supply
> such a compiler.

I don't understand. Are you saying that distributing an executable
affects the source code it is built from? Your source code (which you
would of course distribute with the executable) is what it always was
and its GMGPL licencing is clearly compatible with the GPL (it adds
rights). So the person you distribute to only has to recompile with a
different compiler; where's the problem?

The GPL hasn't been tested, has it, but it does say (in Section 2)

    "Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or
    contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the
    intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of
    derivative or collective works based on the Program."