Texas LinuxFest 2011 call for papers now open

[Daniel Gibson]

Am 20.01.2011 19:58, schrieb Lutger Blijdestijn:
> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>
>> http://www.texaslinuxfest.org/callforpapers/
>>
>> One topic of interest is Open Source Programming Languages. If someone
>> could explain to me the various subtle nuances of what an open source
>> programming language is, I'll try to make a D-related submission and of
>> course I recommend anyone else to do the same.
>>
>>
>> Andrei
>
> This is a matter of perspective, I think these are the possibly interesting
> angles and issues for D:
>
> - availability and development of Open Source compilers (OSI compatible
> license)
>

(x) we have gdc and ldc (check how well current versions with D2 work before 
talking about them, though ;))

> - cross-platform design, this extends beyond linux but is often a concern
> and goal in the Open Source world

(x) Windows, Linux, OSX, FreeBSD are supported, with gdc/ldc probably more

>
> - development process of the language (and std lib) itself: here the
> community participation is important. For D it's an interesting (and
> ongoing) story to tell.

(x) agree.
Also: The std lib is under a very free license (unlike for example suns/oracles 
classpath.. OpenJDK seems to be GPLed, but that still sucks for a std lib)

>
> - usefulness and place in the open source ecosystem: I believe D has a
> potential here as a serious alternative for both mono and java. Mono, the
> open source implementation of .net, has loads of potential patent issues and
> for this reason is not supported by some distro's. Java also has it's
> issues. Positioning D as a solution to those problems (rather than an
> alternative for C++ or dynamic languages) will please the crowd, for sure :)

You can never be sure with patents, as someone else in another thread already 
pointed out: it's virtually impossible to write a piece of software that doesn't 
infringe patents.
Of course, the situation is worse with Java (as seen in Oracle suing Google for 
using a Java-derivate in Android) and Mono (you never know if Microsoft will 
tolerate this forever. Even if they promised not to sue for current .net related 
patents, you never know about patents applying to features in future versions of 
.net).
With D at least people still would have to find patents that are infringed - and 
even then the case isn't as clear as with Java/mono, where it's obvious that the 
Java/.net related patents are infringed.

So yes, the point that D may cause less trouble than Java/.net can be made, but 
you probably shouldn't claim that D doesn't infringe any patents, because you 
can't possibly know (nobody can, there are just too many software patents to 
check, even for big companies).

> Interoperability with C is also important here.

Yeah, it's a killer-feature. Being able to just call C functions and link 
objects produced by gcc objects (foo.o) is *really* helpful, especially in the 
Linux world.


I think D (with gdc/ldc) qualifies as an "Open Source Programming Language", but 
you should probably ask the texaslinuxfest guys for their personal definition.

Cheers,
- Daniel