Sun and licenses
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| bigg Jan 16, 2007 7:49 AM EDT |
At first this sounded like something I could get excited about. I would actually consider contributing to such a project in spite of my time constraints. > Sun released the Fortress interpreter under the permissive open source BSD licence. I'd prefer GPL, but maybe for programming languages BSD is better. Then I read this > The company is keeping control over the official version, though, so for now at least outside programmers will need to give Sun control over their contributions It's not totally clear what that means, but I have to ask why they do stuff like this. Sounds like Java Trap Part II. I'm not sure it matters, though. A Fortran replacement is a monumental task. What makes me laugh is the comment that > Ultimately, Sun wants to build not just an interpreter, which executes Fortress software line by line, but also a compiler, which translates the software in advance into a form a computer can understand from the code a person wrote. How are you going to replace Fortran with an interpreted language? We have lots of non-compiled alternatives to Fortran already. The justification for using Fortran is (a) the existing code base and (b) speed. I wonder if the reporter properly understood everything before writing the story. I don't think Stephen Shankland has much of a background in scientific computing. |
| tuxchick Jan 16, 2007 9:34 AM EDT |
If they use a BSD license, Sun has no control over forks. Hard to say if the article author is confused, or Sun persons. |
| DarrenR114 Jan 16, 2007 10:48 AM EDT |
I was thinking that it may be related to keeping control of the mainline, because as TC points out, using the BSD license, Sun cannot control the destiny of forks. |
| Sander_Marechal Jan 16, 2007 2:20 PM EDT |
They can apply trademark pressure. I think it goes something like: - if you contribute a patch to fortress, you assing copyright to Sun. This system is used frequently but is often not too popular with developers. E.g MySQL. It's the reason they have so few comminity contributions. - if you fork it, you can't call it Fortress. Seems pretty fair to me. |
Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]
Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!