Re: Library files not in their proper distribution?

[Yves Pelletier <ypell@cam.org>]

On Mon, 13 Apr 1998, Guido Flohr wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 12, 1998 at 08:26:54PM -0400, Katherine L Ellis wrote:
> > How about including portlib into the mintlibs where they belong?
> > I thought the aim of portlib was a temporary evolution of the standard
> > mintlibs. 
> 
> The portlib has a different copying policy than the MiNTLib.  And
> one shouldn't migrate the sources into another library without
> asking the author (Kay Roemer).

Ah... That's a good point.

> 
> I would personally prefer to leave the portlib alone in order to avoid
> confusion about the copyright stuff.  Or even better:  Put the
> MiNTLib under the GPL.  

The GPL and its GNU library variant have restrictions that (in
our context, at least) needlessly complicate the distribution of
binary programs.  In fact, the minuscule amount of GPL'd source
code present in the MiNTlib may create such complications. Let's
say you use obstack.c in one of your programs: then, if you want
to release that program in binary form only, the LGPL requires
you to make all object files available as well, to allow any
user to link newer obstack.c functions into it.  This particular
example isn't too bad because obstack is rarely used.  But this
was the main reason I did not put GNU getopt() in the MiNTlib.

Besides, MiNTlib source code comes from various authors, who
generally elected not to GPL it. Almost all of that code was
released either into the public domain or with terms less
restrictive than the LGPL. Basically, I don't think we could
place the MiNTlib under the LGPL even if we wanted to. 

BTW, should obstack.c/obstack.h be in the MiNTlib in the first
place?

> If the portlib was simply integrated into the MiNTLib people
> just won't care about the copyright stuff. (In fact the
> doprnt() function is for example BSD-copyright.  Have you ever
> seen the BSD copyright notice in shareware programs that are
> linked with the MiNTLib?) 

Hmm.  I think I should add a paragraph on this topic in the
MiNTlib FAQ and README.  That would, at least, increase
awareness.

Yves
__ 
When the trees are seen to be moving, the enemy is advancing.
                                              Sun Tzu 9:20