DConf 2013 Closing Keynote: Quo Vadis by Andrei Alexandrescu

[Joakim]

On Sunday, 30 June 2013 at 09:34:14 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 6/29/2013 11:39 PM, Joakim wrote:
>> What do you think of my idea of segmenting the market though? 
>> Keep providing a
>> free-as-in-beer dmd, like you are now, for the people who want 
>> it, while Remedy
>> and others who want performance pay for a dmd that puts out 
>> more performant
>> code, with those improvements slowly merged back into the free 
>> dmd over time.
>
> It won't work. Those days are gone.
I disagree.  We'll find out.

>> If you are not interested in selling a paid compiler yourself, 
>> I've noted that
>> there's nothing stopping someone else from doing this.  They 
>> can take the dmd
>> frontend under the Artistic license, compile it with the 
>> BSD-licensed llvm
>> backend and boost-licensed druntime and phobos, and sell a 
>> paid compiler,
>> without any permission from you or any other D contributors.
>>
>> You could not do anything legally to stop this, as the 
>> permissive OSS licenses
>> allow it.  However, as one of the main authors of this code, 
>> do you have any
>> preference for or against someone taking your code to do this?
>
> Part of issuing it under a permissive license is I won't try to 
> block someone from doing whatever they want to that is allowed 
> by the license.
I understand, but that wasn't exactly my question.

I wondered if you have any opinion on such code reuse, if someone 
takes your code and closes it, even if you wouldn't try to block 
it because you have already released it under a permissive 
license.

Some wouldn't try to close the source if you expressed a 
preference that it not be done- I have no such compunction, if 
the license allows closing source, but others might- just 
wondering if you have an opinion or preference on your source 
being closed up.

Thanks for all the great work you have done on D and the dmd 
compiler.  As much as I'd like to see a commercial 
implementation, it is amazing how much you have given away for 
free. :)