Re: GPL and Plug-INs and XML\Ada

[tmoran@acm.org]

>question on a Windows CVS mailing list; apparently the Free Software
>Foundation position is that a "dll" (which stands for Dynamic Link
>Library) is _linked_, which is the term used in the GPL. So GPL dlls

  A linker is a utility that merges multiple object files together
into a single executable file.  That exe file could be distributed.
A loader takes a file containing a chunk of code and brings it into
memory, possibly relocating addresses and such, so the code can be
executed.  (A "linking loader" does both.) So a DLL, regardless of
the name Microsoft gave it, is a module which can be loaded and
executed.  It is not "linked" to become part of distributable object,
but is loaded to be executed.  A DLL is basically the same as a
subroutine on a library tape, to be loaded dynamically by a program
that needs to use it.  So, unless the word "linked" is specifically
defined within the GPL to have a non-standard meaning, it must be
understood in the way it's normally been used in software for the
last 40 years.  A DLL is loaded, not linked.