I haven't read the LGPL carefully, but there is one point i'd like to make.
Scott Bronson wrote:
ASSUMPTION
Parrot will only link to the GMP library, right? Either static or shared, doesn't matter.
It would certainly work that way, but there are advantages in including the source code:
- We could trim down all the functionality we don't use (if there is any)
- At first glange, GMP seems to handle its own memory allocation. It would be much better if we did that ourselves.
- GMP's compilation process is aware of the machine's hardware, making optimisations accordingly. It should be compiled along with parrot, for better performance.
Therefore I suggest we talk to the authors or the FSF and ask them to allow us to include the (modified!) source code.
I believe that the Parrot project would be very likely to receive such an exemption if it asked for it.
Agreed. LGPL is, after all, "lesser" in the sense that it has more limited protection of the end-user's rights (as opposed to GPL). Parrot on the other hand is distributed under GPL, which is better. :)
- Scott
alexm
