From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,7684e927a2475d0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news2.google.com!news3.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!atl-c08.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!pc03.usenetserver.com!news.flashnewsgroups.com-b7.4zTQh5tI3A!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: can one build commercial applications with latest gnat and other licenses related questions... References: From: Stephen Leake Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 06:16:11 -0400 Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (windows-nt) Cancel-Lock: sha1:GBrsu1ss08ToJPMgGACoC1zDVNU= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Complaints-To: abuse@flashnewsgroups.com Organization: FlashNewsgroups.com X-Trace: 9400a44967977e73ae4a409091 Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:4823 Date: 2006-06-19T06:16:11-04:00 List-Id: klobert 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