On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Matthew Woodward wrote: > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Josh Hayes-Sheen wrote: >> >> The BSD/MIT licenses are as free as it gets to a developer, and I >> think they promote the best code quality in the grand scheme of >> things, > > Not sure I see how a specific license promotes or doesn't promote the best > code quality.
I don't know about quality per se (especially in my case), but I gave an example of how it can prevent contribution/innovation/general furtherance. Which for good coders /could/ equate to quality. =) In my example, we'll probably end up with a better grammar for IDE purposes anyway (diversity is good, yet not *always* good), but it was an opportunity not only to let me continue to procrastinate "really" learning ANTLR, but to get OpenBD kinda involved with the bestest open source CFML IDE-- with no new investment cost on the OpenBD side. With the GPL (even the v3, I think, tho I'm far from an expert), CFE can't say, use OpenBD as an embedded engine for nifty CFML-based stuff. Mark Drew is representing for Railo, and I kinda wanted something from the OBD side, so we don't become unbalanced. I can balance it by providing stuff you can drop OpenBD into, but by definition that's more of a PITA than being able to ship with something, and the more painful something is to do, the less likely it will get done. For all intents and purposes, OBD is basically in the same boat as ACF, as far as CFE goes. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about supporting all three of the major engines-- I'm just saying. ... >> My >> understanding of his post is that if someone's going to contribute >> back to a project they'll do so because they want to, not because >> someone is twisting their arm. > > But here again I think you're only looking at it from the development side. > From the standpoint of the user, and to get really far afield from the > standpoint of society as a whole since so much of society runs on software > these days, it's "better" to guarantee open access top to bottom IMO. Look > at what Apple's doing recently, the potential mess Oracle is making of Java, > what Oracle's doing with most of Sun's open source offerings (Open Solaris, > OpenOffice.org, etc.) and we can see what a danger things like software > patents and "walled gardens" are to the rights of the users, not to mention > innovation in general. ... I still see the "user" in this context as a coder. How many end users give a crap about the sources? Kind of by definition, the only people who really care about source code, are developers. And lawyers, I reckon. =) Apple sucketh, no doubt, but the Oracle example is interesting, because look at what happened with OpenOffice. Didn't they say, "hey, we don't like this new direction, we're outties"? You can't do that with non-open source code. And really, aren't we talking about control, versus access, as far as comparing OSS licenses? I dig the utopian-ness that the GPL has provided, but the world doesn't seem to care. Now you have the "big boys" all up in this open source bitch. I think we won the war that we were fighting. It was inevitable, obviously, but the GPL provided that eye opener-- or something. I don't know. I feel like I should be this huge supporter of the GPL, but for all my dream'n, I'm stuck in practical-land at times, and it's there where I've felt stymied by the GPL (not the LGPL so much though). I wanted to innovate away, as per my M.O., but couldn't in good conscience. Which didn't feel "free". But maybe I'm lacking in heart. Or maybe I'm more of an anarchist than a utopianist (which is funny, because anarchy is sorta similar). The GPL does seem sorta like a living, breathing Utopia, which most people feel cannot exist in this day and age (not me though! And yet, am I dream'n? =]) I wish we didn't need the law. =) Maybe the greater good, and practicality, don't need to be so far apart... Ah, philosophy. Hello my old friend. :Den -- Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do. Plato -- Open BlueDragon Public Mailing List http://www.openbluedragon.org/ http://twitter.com/OpenBlueDragon official manual: http://www.openbluedragon.org/manual/ Ready2Run CFML http://www.openbluedragon.org/openbdjam/ mailing list - http://groups.google.com/group/openbd?hl=en
