[m-dev.] Cygwin32

[Fergus Henderson]

Tyson Richard DOWD, you wrote:
> 
> [Re new Cygwin32 license]

Yes, I've been following that.

> Don't know whether anyone else has seen this yet - but Cygwin32 is what
> we use to enable the Windows port of Mercury.
> 
> The actual new license is at
> http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/cygwin32-license-1.0.html
> 
> Parts such as 
> 
> 	[You can use "cygwin.dll" with software you develop provided you
> 	are not an embedded systems developer or a compiler developer.] 

The bits in [...] are paraphrasings of the legalese.
Copyright law means that licenses can only restrict copying, not use.
In fact we _can_ use cygwin.dll (see section 2.1 in the license),
we just can't distribute it.

The Mercury compiler is not a derivative work of cygwin, and
Cygnus have no power to prevent us from distributing source code
that happens to work on gnu-win32.

Still, it would be nicer if cygwin32 had dual GPL/cygwin32 licensing schemes,
just like perl has a dual GPL/artistic licensing schemes.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>   |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>   |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh at 128.250.37.3         |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.