Re: LGPL Requirements (was: Selecting Ada95 compiler for MSDOS realtime application)

[Samuel Tardieu <sam@ada.eu.org>]

>>>>> "F" == F Britt Snodgrass <ada95@fyiowa.infi.net> writes:

F> Perhaps Richard's comment was made precisely because he has read
F> the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL) that covers GNAT's
F> libraries.

GNAT's libraries covered by the LGPL ? Where did you read this ?

F> I would be happy to have someone convince me I'm reading too much
F> into the LGPL but it seems pretty clear to me.  As much as I like
F> GNAT, using it to develop embedded software for a non-free
F> commercial product seems to levy additional requirements compared
F> to using a non-free Ada compiler.  Am I wrong?

Well, let's take a GNAT library file: Ada.Text_IO (body) for
example. The copyright that is written in it reads:

-- GNAT is free software;  you can  redistribute it  and/or modify it under --
-- terms of the  GNU General Public License as published  by the Free Soft- --
-- ware  Foundation;  either version 2,  or (at your option) any later ver- --
-- sion.  GNAT is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITH- --
-- OUT ANY WARRANTY;  without even the  implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY --
-- or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License --
-- for  more details.  You should have  received  a copy of the GNU General --
-- Public License  distributed with GNAT;  see file COPYING.  If not, write --
-- to  the Free Software Foundation,  59 Temple Place - Suite 330,  Boston, --
-- MA 02111-1307, USA.                                                      --
--                                                                          --
-- As a special exception,  if other files  instantiate  generics from this --
-- unit, or you link  this unit with other files  to produce an executable, --
-- this  unit  does not  by itself cause  the resulting  executable  to  be --
-- covered  by the  GNU  General  Public  License.  This exception does not --
-- however invalidate  any other reasons why  the executable file  might be --
-- covered by the  GNU Public License.                                      --

Note the "As a special exception ..." paragraph ! Also note that the
LGPL isn't mentionned anywhere in this notice !

  Sam
-- 
  Samuel Tardieu -- sam@ada.eu.org