On Tue, Jan 27, 2004 at 10:39:45AM -0500, Byron A Jeff wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 05:19:33PM +0100, Wouter van Ooijen wrote:

I feel the need to clarify #4 a bit more, though the solution is the same.

> 1) The library can be freely used and distributed.
> 2) Any code that simply uses the library is not affected by the LGPL status
>    of the library. So it can be closed source. More on this in a minute.
> 3) However any changes to the library itself are subject to the LGPL and the
>    source must be released if the modified library is released.
> 4) Users have the right, and developers have the obligation to provide, a
>    mechanism for the user to update the library. The consquence of this, which
>    is the problem with the JAL library, is that if there is no procedural
>    mechanism to separate the applications code and the library code, that the
>    only way to accomplish this is to release the applications source. This
>    negates point #2 which is the whole purpose of the LGPL.

Clarification: a complete application consists of application code and library
code. They are integrated in some way: linked, or included. The user's right
to update means that if the library is modified, improved, bugfixed, or
extended, then users should be able to build a new complete application by
mixing the application code and the new library. In higher level systems this
is pretty easy: libraries come in a separate package and simply relinking
(or just loading with the new lib if the lib is dynamincally linked) is
sufficient to "update" the complete application with the library. However in
the case of JAL, and other embedded systems development suites, the application
code and the library code are compiled together. Hence the point above of
...no procedural mechanism to separate the applications code and the library
code.

Now the fact of the matter is that there is a way to do this in the PIC world:
linking relocatable objects. However at this time JAL doesn't have a system
for producing such objects. When it does, most of the issues above will
disappear. But until then (or even then for that matter) the BSL license is
probably best.

BAJ

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads