plug-ns and the GNU general license

[honkFactory]

Howdy,
Suppose you are writing a program with a plug-in architecture. Also suppose that you write a plug-in for this program that uses a library licensed under the gnu general license. Do you have to release the source code for both plug-in and the application or is just the code for the plug-in enough?

A.W.

[OneSadCookie]

The whole application if the library is GPLed, just the plugin if the library is LGPLed.

[kelvin]

links for LGPL and GPL?

[OneSadCookie]

GPL: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt
LGPL: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.txt

[honkFactory]

The whole application if the library is GPLed,
Really. That seems strange. What if somebody else writes a plug-in for my program that uses a GPLed library? Surely that would not force me to release the source code for my app. That would be ridiculous. Therefore, if I were to write a plug-in for my app in the same spirit as a 3rd party plug-in author it should be acceptable. Right? Is there some clause in the GPL that specifically restricts plug-ins written by the apps author? If not, it seems like there would be no legal distinction between 1st and 3rd party plugin authors.

I am all for sharing software and source code, but the more I look at GPL the more restrictive and unrealistic it seems. It seems like it was written by beatniks with a socialist agenda. If the goal of the license is to increase the sharing of source code I think it fails badly because even though GPL source is available it is often unusable because of its restrictiveness. Talk about creating security holes. How are you supposed to cripple shareware when anyone who wants can edit the registration protection out of your software and give it away for free.

Whats wrong with the BSD license, people?

A.W.

[OneSadCookie]

What if somebody else writes a plug-in for my program that uses a GPLed library? Surely that would not force me to release the source code for my app.

No, it would force them to release the source code for your app under the GPL. Since they can't do that ('cos they don't have it), they can't release their plug-in.

(IANAL).

The GPL itself states that if you want your library to be linkable to a non-GPL program, you should choose the LGPL for the library. Almost all libraries these days are LGPLed rather than GPLed, anyway.

The GPL was written by beatniks with a socialist agenda. That doesn't mean that it doesn't have its place, though ;)

The problem with a BSD-like license is that others are perfectly free to modify your code and not tell you, and to sell the code or binary, modified or unmodified. Sometimes, that's acceptable. Sometimes, you don't want to allow that.

[honkFactory]

No, it would force them to release the source code for your app under the GPL. Since they can't do that ('cos they don't have it), they can't release their plug-in.

Ya, that makes sense. Put that case under the collumn of instances where people cannot use GPLed software. What does IANAL mean?

Mostly I am just frustrated because I found a good library, the GNU scientific library and it covered under the GPL. I haven't been able to find a free, non GPL library that does minimization, except Minuit, which is the best of its kind but is written in FORTRAN. If anyone knows of an unrestricted chi squared minimization library let me know.

A.W.

[OneSadCookie]

What does IANAL mean?

I am not a lawyer

I've also seen IANALNDIPOOTV (I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV)

[Patrick]

Originally posted by honkFactory
Ya, that makes sense. Put that case under the collumn of instances where people cannot use GPLed software. What does IANAL mean?

Mostly I am just frustrated because I found a good library, the GNU scientific library and it covered under the GPL. I haven't been able to find a free, non GPL library that does minimization, except Minuit, which is the best of its kind but is written in FORTRAN. If anyone knows of an unrestricted chi squared minimization library let me know.

A.W.
I have heard that the GNU Fortran compiler ( G77? ) can be installed on Mac OS X. Perhaps you could install it and use it to compile Minuit?

just a thought

[honkFactory]

I have heard that the GNU Fortran compiler ( G77? ) can be installed on Mac OS X. Perhaps you could install it and use it to compile Minuit?

Yes. I had that thought too. I have actually used Minuit before. A former co worker of mine wrote a MATLAB wrapper for it and my code was in MATLAB. However I do not know fortran and if anything went wrong in the compiling it would be an arduous task to set thing right. Also how do you interface C and Fortran? Despite the fact that this is virgin teritory for me it would be worth while and might be the best solution anyway. Why support some beatnik software when you can use the industry standard? I will look into it. Any advice on compiling/ working with/ interfacing Fortan code will be appreciated.
A.W.