--- In [email protected], "brian_z111" <brian_z...@...> wrote: > I can't help wondering if AFL could me made an open source language
Such as, for example, Python, where both the specification of the language syntax and the source code to the interpreter that implements that syntax are fully disclosed and "free" as per the specific terms of the OS license being used? I don't believe that AFL could be open-sourced without almost the entire AB platform being open-sourced, as the AB platform is the interpreter of AFL. It's perhaps a momentarily interesting fantasy to wonder how AB/AFL might develop if the whole enchilada were a community project (ala Linux) rather than a one-man project, but this is TJ's livelihood, so I wouldn't look for that to happen any time soon. Further, it is certainly arguable that AB/AFL advances further-faster under it's current model than under any other. The bolt-on optimizer capability, COM capabilities, and the other SDK capabilities certainly provide alot of room for "close to the core" (if not _the_ core) extension already. I'll bet there's alot more of that done privately than publicly. As for programs written in AFL by others, it's no different than books written in English, or programs written in C. The status of AFL itself as something that only TJ has the right to duplicate and sell is immaterial to the separate status of works of authorship (by anyone) which happen to use AFL as the language/medium of expression.
