Raul Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > That just means that someone can slap on somthing so that the code can > > run standalone.
On Thu, Sep 28, 2000 at 06:39:24PM +0100, Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS wrote: > I intend the expression to mean rather more than just that. Ok, so it needs work. > I could add some explanation about what should reasonably be > considered an independent and separate work, but I think it's clear > that each part should be useful without the other part. But what does "useful" mean? > For example, libssl is useful without mutt, and mutt is useful without > libssl. For example, let's say I wanted to use gcc to implement microsoft's upcoming C#, but that I didn't want to lose control of the language. So, I implement a library that my IDE uses to do stuff like syntax coloring on the source code, automatic adding of drop-downs, and such at appropriate points in the code, etc. And, I use that library to interface to gcc, using gcc's internals in a fashion so hopelessly complex that it would take years for anyone to implement anything competitive. [And, of course, in years, I'll have made a lot of improvements.] For this case, your conditions have been met, and you'd have a license which offerered considerably less recourse than just licensing gcc under the lgpl. [At least with the lgpl, they would have been forced to use some kind of public interface.] > > My impression is that your clause actually offers less protection than > > the LGPL. > > Why do you think it offers less protection? I was hoping it might > offer more protection. Does my above example help? Would you like a different one? > Let's consider the example of someone adding to Mutt a non-GPL module > that lets Mutt talk to some kind of mail server. You don't even need to modify mutt for that. Just create something which supports writing a mail message to /usr/bin/sendmail's stdin. [You'd want to support a few sendmail options, but just a fraction of the total. I can give you some pointers if you're interested.] I know this works because I use it already (my .muttrc has a line that says: set sendmail="/home/moth/bin/sendmail -oi -oem" And, yes, I do things on mail delivery which aren't options with any existing implementation of /usr/lib/sendmail. -- Raul