Re: can one build commercial applications with latest gnat and other licenses related questions...

[Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@acm.org>]

klobert <klobert@sbcglobal.net> writes:

> I am looking for some clear information related with ada compiler
> licensing.

Then you are probably in the wrong place. The only place to get
reliable information on legal issues is from a lawyer, or from the
compiler vendors. 

But that doesn't stop the rest of us from chiming in :).

> Is it possible to build commercial applications without releasing
> the source code using latest "libre" version of gnat ? 

You are probably not using "commercial" to mean what I think it means.

"commercial" means "making money". So yes, you can make money without
releasing source code that is under the GPL license; you sell the
service of running your code, rather than selling the code or binaries
produced from it.

But you probably meant:

"can I sell binaries without source code, if compiled with GNAT
GPL-2006"

The answer to that is "no", because the binaries will contain the
compiler runtime, which is licensed under the Gnu GPL, which requires
source code distribution.

> Or is it necessary to buy a $15K commercial license from adacore in
> order to build commercial applications ? 

That is one choice. It is highly recommended. Note that you are
actually buying a support contract, and their support is excellent.

> What's the difference in license between gcc ada and gnat ? 

I'll assume by 'gcc ada' you mean the official Free Software
Foundation distribution of the GNAT compiler in the GCC (Gnu Compiler
Collection). And by 'gnat' you mean the public release GNAT GPL-2006.

The gcc ada runtime has the GMGPL license, which means it does _not_
require you to distribute source code with binaries. 

The GNAT GPL-2006 runtime has the GPL license, which does require you
to distribute source code with binaries.

> What's the difference in functionality between these: (gnat,
> gccada3.44, gccada4.1.0 ? ) 

They nominally contain the _same_ compiler, but they are slightly
different because of release cycles.

A major difference is that some of the tools that are in GNAT GPL-2006
are not in gcc ada; notably ASIS, and the debugger may not be
Ada-aware (depending on exactly how your distribution is configured).

Also, the GNAT public releases are more reliable (more thoroughly
tested). That's because the gcc release cycle does _not_ wait for Ada
compiler issues, while the GNAT public release cycle does. That may
become less of an issue over time.

I believe gcc ada 4.1.0 has the same Ada 2005 features as GNAT
GPL-2005, but I'm not sure. gcc ada 3.4.4 has no Ada 2005 features.

> What happened to the Eclat compiler ? 

Never heard of it. There is a SourceForge project for it, but no
downloads. Writing a useful Ada compiler is several man-years of work,
so I doubt that will ever get anywhere.

> Is thee any ada compiler under BSD license ? 

The best list of compilers I know of is at
http://www.adaic.com/compilers/comp-tool.html 

That list would probably not include volunteer efforts.

> Thanks for your help. 

You're welcome. Hope this helps.

-- 
-- Stephe