[Haskell] My summer of code project: HsJudy

[Brian Hulley]

Malcolm Wallace wrote:
> "Brian Hulley" <brianh at metamilk.com> wrote:
>
>>> http://judy.sf.net
>>
>> I wonder if the authors of the library could be persuaded to make it
>> available under an Open Source license, because currently it is under
>> the  very limiting restrictions imposed by LGPL...
>
> You have a very non-standard definition of "Open Source", if the GPL
> and LGPL do not fit in, since those are classic Free Software
> licences!  The Google SoC rules insist that all work produced under
> their programme be Open Source according to the OSI definition at
>    http://www.opensource.org/
>
>> (ie incomaptible with commercial
>> development and  the "normal" Haskell library license)
>
> I believe you are wrong.  Both the GPL and the LGPL (more so the
> latter) are perfectly compatible with commercial development.
> Specifically, the GPL and BSD3 (as used by ghc) licences are
> compatible, in the sense that you can freely combine BSD3 code with
> GPL code.  Plenty of people make money from closed-source projects
> that include LGPL'd components.
>
> If what you really mean by "open source" is the ability to take code
> and into make non-open modifications to it (as BSD permits), then
> that is far more demanding than what most people mean by the term.

Well the problem with LGPL afaiu is that if you statically link your code to 
it your are required to make your own source code available.

If HsJudy would have a BSD licence but only the C Judy component had the 
LGPL licence, a possible solution for me afaiu would be to put the C Judy 
code into a DLL. This depends though on HsJudy itself being BSD (or 
something which allows you to statically link to it without having to 
disclose the source for the program you're statically linking to).

I don't think (I may be wrong) that different bits of Haskell code (under 
GHC at least) can currently coexist happily in DLLs.

Anyway I hope I didn't sound negative. I think it will be *great* to have 
mutable collection types in Haskell - I just get worried if something so 
important should have a restrictive licence attached.

Good luck with the project,
Brian.

-- 
Logic empowers us and Love gives us purpose.
Yet still phantoms restless for eras long past,
congealed in the present in unthought forms,
strive mightily unseen to destroy us.

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