Jason wrote: > A non-python programming friend of mine has said that any programs made > with Python must be distributed with, or an alternative link, to the > source of the program. > > Is this true?
There seems to be some confusion regarding what you are asking. Are you asking about legal issues of about technical issues? Perhaps your friend is confused about these issues. There are no licence problems with Python. It doesn't use anything like GPL. You do what you like with your code. Technically, Python code is compiled into bytecode (like Java) but in contrast with typical Java apps, it's common that Python code is delivered as source. As someone else mentioned, python modules are automatically compiled the first time they are imported, and the compiled modules will be used directly the next time, unless you change the source code (Python looks at file modification times). Typically, it seems professional programmers developing commercial software with Python worry little about their sourcecode being accessible. Source code is protected by copyright after all, and hiding source code doesn't prevent people from stealing software anyway. For some strange reason, it seems that it's almost always complete beginners that express their worries that someone will steal their valuable intellectual property if they distribute source, and that somehow strikes me as unlikely. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list