Re: GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is now available

[David Trudgett <wpower@zeta.org.au.nospamplease>]

"Ludovic Brenta" <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> writes:

> I've downloaded GNAT GPL 2005 Edition and will review it as time
> permits.  If I execute on my previously published Debian Policy for
> Ada, this GPL Edition will become the next "gnat" package in Debian
> Etch.  The fact that the run-time library uses the GPL is not a
> problem for me, nor is it for Debian (for example, Debian already
> supplies Qt which is also GPL).  However, if sufficiently many people
> object to this, I will reconsider.

Hi Ludovic!

Please put me down as against GNAT GPL being used as the new Debian
compiler. As far as I'm concerned, it is *less* free, not more free,
notwithstanding its GPL status. I'm not a fan of closed source,
proprietary software (obviously, if you look at my web page), but I am
also not a fan of taking away people's freedoms. At the moment a GNAT
developer on the Debian platform has complete freedom to choose how to
license his/her software to meet his own special requirements. If that
means supplying closed source to a few friends (for example), then
it's no one else's business to question why. Giving the developer this
freedom in no way jeopardizes the Free status of the
compiler/run-time. Taking away the freedom has no benefit (except
corporate profit?).

I'm not in a position to make an informed vote about which of the
other choices should be used. I'll trust that to your technical
judgement. Neither ASIS nor GLADE are critical for me, I think, though
both would be nice: I'd like to experiment with GLADE at some stage;
and ASIS is required for gnatelim, isn't it? which would be nice to have.

You were also interested in why people use Debian. I have a few reasons:

   o Emphasis on Free Software. Other distribution mix in non-Free but
     gratis software.

   o Community developed and supported. I was a Red Hat user before
     they turned their back on the Free Software community. (Actually,
     I still have a Red Hat installed, but am about to switch it to
     Debian.)

   o Great support for software development. Ada is one example
     (thanks to you, Ludovic). Common Lisp is another.

   o Don't have to re-install every six months when a new release
     comes out.

   o apt-get! and friends :-)



> Please cast a vote on this forum.  This is the time to influence the
> next version of Debian.

Please don't use GNAT GPL 2005! Maybe AdaCore will get the message.



Cheers,

David



-- 

David Trudgett
http://www.zeta.org.au/~wpower/

We come here upon what, in a large proportion of cases, forms the
source of the grossest errors of mankind. Men on a lower level of
understanding, when brought into contact with phenomena of a higher
order, instead of making efforts to understand them, to raise
themselves up to the point of view from which they must look at the
subject, judge it from their lower standpoint, and the less they
understand what they are talking about, the more confidently and
unhesitatingly they pass judgment on it.

    -- Leo Tolstoy, "The Kingdom of God is Within You"