Post by Tom Mulgrew on Dec 4, 2006 2:03:06 GMT -5
Thought I'd bring up the whole put-Basic4GL-on-Sourceforge idea again (mainly motivated by the recent Linux progress).
It's something that I've meant to do for a while, but never really got sorted out.
The main issues are:
1. Sorting out the license.
It needs to be a recognized open source license. I'm leaning towards the regular GPL.
However there are some issues. I don't want the standalone exe's that it generates to be GPL. However those exes contain a lot of the standard Basic4GL source, including the virtual machine, function libraries and even the compiler (required so that the Compile() functions work at runtime).
I'm told there are ways around this issue. For example GCC (the C++ compiler) is licensed under the GPL, but the executables it generates are not bound by it, even though they can contain its library code. Some sort of "GPL + caveats" license might be what is needed, but I'm not an expert in such areas, so research is needed.
2. Sorting out the source code.
Especially make files and project files.
For example, the current source has a few weird pathnames in it based on where things are stored on my hard-drive. I like to think that most of it is fairly well organised, but there are still a few things that could be cleaned up.
Also the windows and linux branches would probably need to be sorted out, so that they are both branching from the most recent version. (Or alternatively add conditional compilation, so that they are built from the same source code... Hmm..)
3. Getting setup on sourceforge.
I have a page setup for Basic4GL already. It's just a matter of getting the content up there, once the above issues are resolved.
Anyway, I'd welcome any input on what you all think should be done, (and whether it's worth the effort to begin with...?).
Cheers,
-Tom
It's something that I've meant to do for a while, but never really got sorted out.
The main issues are:
1. Sorting out the license.
It needs to be a recognized open source license. I'm leaning towards the regular GPL.
However there are some issues. I don't want the standalone exe's that it generates to be GPL. However those exes contain a lot of the standard Basic4GL source, including the virtual machine, function libraries and even the compiler (required so that the Compile() functions work at runtime).
I'm told there are ways around this issue. For example GCC (the C++ compiler) is licensed under the GPL, but the executables it generates are not bound by it, even though they can contain its library code. Some sort of "GPL + caveats" license might be what is needed, but I'm not an expert in such areas, so research is needed.
2. Sorting out the source code.
Especially make files and project files.
For example, the current source has a few weird pathnames in it based on where things are stored on my hard-drive. I like to think that most of it is fairly well organised, but there are still a few things that could be cleaned up.
Also the windows and linux branches would probably need to be sorted out, so that they are both branching from the most recent version. (Or alternatively add conditional compilation, so that they are built from the same source code... Hmm..)
3. Getting setup on sourceforge.
I have a page setup for Basic4GL already. It's just a matter of getting the content up there, once the above issues are resolved.
Anyway, I'd welcome any input on what you all think should be done, (and whether it's worth the effort to begin with...?).
Cheers,
-Tom