[Ecls-list] Project status and changes

[Waldek Hebisch]

Juan Jose Garcia-Ripoll wrote:
> 
> The first one is the license issue. I put out a suggestion to migrate to
> MPIR because I knew that MPIR had an effort to stay with LGPL2.
> Regrettably, I did not know that this effort was abandoned so that if ECL
> wishes to upgrade to any more recent version of GMP/MPIR it has to migrate
> to LGPL3.
<snip>
> * I am not going to change ECL's license. LGPL3's restrictions on web
> applications seem stupid to me and, as experience has shown, making such a
> move will only make things worse. Already LGPL2 is a hindrance, but I can
> live with it.
> 
> * This said, GMP v5 is insufficient for several platforms but I will
> maintain it as it is. *On platforms where GMP becomes obsolete, it will
> shift to building with "C"* (i.e. no optimized assembly code). I tested
> this on Cygwin/64 and it works -- *indeed it is part of the source tree
> right now*. If you need a better GMP, build ECL with the one that your
> operating system provides and be tied to its license.

A little remark:

- AFAIU bundling LGPL3 licenced GMP/MPIR does not affect ECL licence.
  Bundling LGPL3 licenced code with ECL puts some requirements on
  people distributing ECL.  IMHO the main issue is if ECL is able
  to work with given version of GMP or MPIR.  I ideal world ECL
  would work with all versions of GMP, but clearly that may require
  too much effort.  In particular, if problem is due to GMP, then
  I do not expect ECL developers to fix it.  Put it differently,
  if for some user old GMP does not work and user is unhappy with
  licence of new GMP, then it matter between user and GMP and not
  ECL.  Bundling GMP is convenice for users, so clearly it should
  be version which is most likely to work.  I would say that as
  long as it is reasonably easy to unbuldle given GMP version
  and replace it by different one this does not harm ECL
  freeness.

- AFAIK changing ECL licence requires consent of all copyright
  owners (which seem to be all ECL contributors).  This may be 
  tricky, but fortunately seem to be unnecessary.

<rant> For me big attraction of open source is that I can code
without worring much about all this legal nonsense.  Unfortuntely
GPL3/LGPL3 means that I (and other folks) must look more at
such issue than I would like.
</rant>

-- 
                              Waldek Hebisch
hebisch at math.uni.wroc.pl