[m-dev.] [m-users.] Closed source Mercury projects on Windows

[Julien Fischer]

Hi all,

On Sun, 27 May 2018, Zoltan Somogyi wrote:

> On Sun, 27 May 2018 19:57:50 +1000, Mark Brown <mark at mercurylang.org> wrote:
>> Yes, I would object, as I think there is a better way to achieve to
>> intended effect. Adding a prelude or making other changes is tricky if
>> you consider that the document uses negation heavily and is (of
>> course!) recursively defined: does "this License", in 2(c) for
>> example, refer to the original or the modified version?
>> 
>> I would like to propose that we release the standard library under
>> something like the following license, in addition to the LGPL: "You
>> may, without restriction, copy and distribute the Library (or a
>> portion or derivative of it) in object code or executable form as
>> produced by the Compiler."
>> 
>> I believe this permits only what was intended all along, namely that
>> you should be able to write and distribute Mercury programs and
>> libraries without making them open source. Does anyone disagree that
>> it would have this effect?
>
> No disagreement here. That would work as well, and even better,
> for the reasons you cite.
>
> Do you have a proposal for an actual license text, or a model for us to follow?

The wxWindows library license is one such example of a static linking
exception.  I suggest looking at modified LGPLs that have been OSI
approved, rather than just making ad-hoc modifications to the LGPL.
(Such ad-hoc modifications cause all sort of trouble.)

My own feeling is that rather than using a modified LGPL, it would be
more straightforward to relicense the runtime, stdlib etc under the
BSD or MIT license.

> By the way, this license would have to apply not just to the standard library,
> but also to the trace, browser and mdbcomp directories as well, if we want
> to allow the distribution of debuggable executables. I don't think that will be
> needed often, but it should be available nevertheless to those who want it.

And to the Java version of the runtime as well.

Julien.