[sword-devel] Sword VC++ DLL

[Paul Gear]

Chris Little wrote:

> ...
> This raises the issue of licenses.  I can release all of the source code I
> work on (anything not from Dinkumware).  And I can release .libs and .dlls
> so others can build apps for CE.  But I can't actually release anything that
> is fully compilable because it would need to link against Dinkumware's
> library.  Is there any way to reconcile this with SWORD being under GPL?
> Would Crosswire have to license SWORD to me specifically under a non-GPL
> license, allowing CE .libs and .dlls to be released without full source?

If you are talking about Sword requiring a 3rd-party library in order to build
or link, there is no need to change anything - GPL is compatible with this.
I'm not super sure about the binary side of things (.libs and .dlls) - are the
Dinkum libraries statically linked inside these?  If so, i don't think that
would be a problem, as long as it's not in violation of the Dinkum license.

The GPL really doesn't care about linking.  The issue is having the freedom to
be able to modify and change the software if you want to.  That it depends on a
3rd-party library to build and run it is just a fact of life.  It's just like
it depends on the fact that you need WinCE (it looks so much better in
lowercase ;-) to run it.

Paul
---------
"He must become greater; i must become less." - John 3:30
http://www.bigfoot.com/~paulgear