Re: Official ODBC announcement

Mark,

ISTR you putting your hand up not long ago, proposing
to do some work on the current driver. Have you
managed to get to that, or if not, is there any
prospect of it?

As a general comment on this
to-my-eyes-excessively-overwrought discussion: my
perception is that the existing driver works pretty
will for 99% of users, albeit with workarounds
necessary for some kinds of functionality. The main
problem is the lack of a maintainer. And yes, the
code could benefit from rewriting in some places. But
I wonder whether the problem is as bad as the
discussion suggests.

--- markw(at)mohawksoft(dot)com wrote:
> > The driver will be released as GPL with commercial
> licenses available
> > from Command Prompt, Inc.
> >
> Don't get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of the
> GPL, for applications.
> I'm all about free -- as in freedom.
>
> Sorry, but an interface library released as GPL is
> the very embodiment
> people's worst fear about open source being risky.
>
> There are, IMHO, basically three types of self
> contained code packages:
> Applications, libraries, and interfaces.
>
> Applications which stand alone should be GPL one can
> use them freely. The
> code is protected.
>
> Libraries which are linked (either dynamically or
> statically) should be
> GPL because using them requires explicit acceptance
> of the licensing terms
> by the developer.
>
> Interfaces, like yours, typically follow 3rd party
> standards and can be
> used in an application without prior knowledge of
> the developer. As such,
> an end user can put themselves in GPL violation
> without even knowing under
> the current definitions of "derivitive work" as put
> forth by RMS.
>
> That's not freedom, that's a legal minefield. If you
> are serious about
> "free, as in freedom" software, then you should
> licence it as LGPL.
>
> If I could send a message to the ODBC developers, I
> would say don't do
> this. It is nothing more than using, what I think
> is, a very bad behavior
> of a specific application of the GPL to limit
> freedom and exploit your
> work and generate revenue that you will never see.
>
> If you want to write something that everyone can
> use, ignore this offer
> and continue on with an LGPL version.
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of
> broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 8: explain analyze is your friend
>

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