David Corcoran wrote:
> The reason it is delicate and that sources shouldn't be distributed yet is
> because in it's early stages, I can imagine 20 people changing the applet.
> This results in 20 different applets, 20 different protocols. If there
> are 20 different applets its no different than having 20 different cards
> and the musclecard idea is completely lost. You can't have interoperability
> on the card if there are 20 different versions of the applet.
Like Ludovic, I think you are a bit wrong.
If your applet is open source, then like other open source projects you
will get suggestions and patches, and as the maintainer you are the
"official" reference of the project, so 99 % of the person who want to
use the project will want to use your version, not a possibly forked/
incompatible one. How many people want to use a forked Linux ?
I don't think many people will start to distribute an incompatible
version of your project, I doesn't make sense in the open source world.
I understand that you are trying to set a standard, but just mark your
software as alpha and state that the APIs are still subject to change
(in the README).
> Although many people on this list may disagree with me, I don't agree
> with the GPL license - it is too restrictive. It does exactly the
> opposite of what it stands for, restricts freedoms. GPL requires any
> software using a GPL'd software be also open source. This is a
> restrictment.
I am surprised to read that.
You can use GPL programs on a non-GPL OS (cygwin tools on Windows NT for
example). You can also publish your software under the LGPL, so non-GPL
applications can link with your library. It depends on whose freedom
you are talking about.
One of the strength of the GPL is to forbid someone to take your work
and distribute a modified binary without the sources (this is exactly
what you want to avoid, see your above paragraph about forking and
incompatibilities).
I won't explain the other strengths of the GPL (I guess many of us
already know about it), but a lot a thoughts have been put into the GPL
and I don't think it is worth to think again about it. Its usefulness
is there.
Best regards.
--
Olivier Jeannet - e-Payment solutions R&D
"Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but
that is not the reason we are doing it"
- Richard Feynman (Physics Nobel Prize)
***************************************************************
Unix Smart Card Developers - M.U.S.C.L.E.
(Movement for the Use of Smart Cards in a Linux Environment)
http://www.linuxnet.com/
To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe sclinux
***************************************************************
