RE: [ba-ohs-talk] More bad news about the GPL License: Fwd: [Gxl] GCC Licencing and XML extracts
Jack, (01)
I noticed that you were mentioning the introspector
project in an mail on this list. (02)
http://www.bootstrap.org/lists/ba-ohs-talk/0203/msg00007.html (03)
Too bad that you did not cc me on your post, I would
have been able to answer your mail. (04)
Therefore I decided to post an answer to this list
(again) to provide some
background on the introspector project.
http://introspector.sourceforge.net (05)
Orginally I wanted to generate a discussion about the
ethics of creation of
closed source tools that use/abuse the GPL and
specifically the GCC: (06)
It seems that my mail did not show up on the list, so
I am reposting it after some editing.
hopfully everyone did not get the message twice! (07)
You asked :
>>What is a "complex data structure?" (02) (08)
The complex data structure in the introspector is a
entire program. It is a dump of the memory of the
compilers abstract representation
that is very similar to the form of the memory of the
compiler itself.
In fact it is almost identical. (09)
You asked :
>>I wonder if that means that any software that
>>runs on the GPL'd Linux must be GPL'd as well. (3) (010)
Just because a system runs on linux does not make it
automatically GPLed. (011)
The question is in the end the way that you use the
GPLed code. (012)
Lets think about the idea of a gödel number,
that every system can be encoded into a number and
processed by a numbering crunching/theory system. (013)
Now lets combine that with the GPL any GPLed system
can
be modified under the GPL to become a program that
will
extract all of its data and code into a form that is
not under the GPL,
just data. (014)
A author of a GPL software must be able to protect
himself from such abuse : (015)
If some user were to create
such an interface and a dependency on a GPLed system,
then the defense would be to look if that abuser is
creating a derived system. (016)
The defense would be to see if the abuser can be made
or asked
to also publish their work under the GPL! (017)
On the other hand, there is the the cppx project.
The cppx project can be found at
http://www.swag.uwaterloo.ca/~cppx/
who I was addressing in my original email to
"cppx@swag.uwaterloo.ca". (018)
They have created a patch for the gcc to extract
information about program.
The cppx program itself is under the GPL. (019)
The question at hand is if the tools that use the cppx (020)
output are or would be forced to make themselved GPLed
as well. (021)
The problem with that is that the GLX and TA formats
were published before the cppx project was, and that
many tools use that format.
They are just data formats. (022)
It would be difficult to force people who are using
those formats to relicence thier software.
The only thing that I see we can do is to provide a
better and free alternatives to the non-free software, (023)
while making the public aware of what is going on. (024)
In the end, the introspector projects goal is to
create a Free (as in freedom) set of tools for
processing programs visually, reverse engineering
existing programs, and creating a source code
processing toolset that is better than the closed
source tools that are available. (025)
I have decided to license all of the introspector
under the GPL proper to protect the GCC compiler from
abuse. That also applies to systems that use the
introspector, embed it or interface into it if
possible. (026)
The introspector first midrange goal is to provide an
API for accessing a programs meta-data at run-time,
compile-time and statically. (027)
Another goal is the creation of a hyper-text document
and possible graphs from the
programs internal structure is needed to allow a
navigation and understanding of the user.
Similar to the Doxygen project. (028)
This is ambitious, but after a certain point, more
people will be able to contribute given that the
software is free software. (029)
I hope that I have added some more background to my
original posting. (030)
Mike (031)
=====
James Michael DuPont (032)
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