On Thu, 2025-11-27 at 23:38 +0000, Srayan Jana wrote: > Hello! > This might sound dumb, but could you make a closed source application using > Guile? Guile itself is GPL, but does that mean anything I make using Guile > ALSO has to be GPL?
Legally and technically you could (as other explained), provided you do follow some rules and guidelines. On most operating systems, you need to have the libguile dynamically linked (because a technical savy user should be able to improve or replace it with a newer version). However.... Your software will probably use Guile as a scripting language. I believe that you want to enable power users to write their own Guile scripts. Your software could have proprietary Guile scripts. You then need some infrastructure to protect them (eg to "encrypt") them. I recommend the opposite: ask you manager the permission to embed Guile, and to provide users with open source Guile scripting abilities. And otherwise, explain on guile-user@ list the exact technical meaning of a closed source application using Guile. Regards -- Basile STARYNKEVITCH basile AT starynkevitch DOT net 8 rue de la Faïencerie http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/ 92340 Bourg-la-Reine https://github.com/bstarynk France https://github.com/RefPerSys/RefPerSys https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0908-5250
