The economics of D

[John Reimer]

Bill Baxter wrote:
> Dan wrote:
>> Sean Kelly Wrote:
>>
>>> Frits van Bommel wrote:
>>>> Peter C. Chapin wrote:
>>>>> dan wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> My only major concern lies in that d isnt open source and is 
>>>>>> therefore bound to walter.  if he goes, so does D.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe we should get life insurance on him?
>>>>> Is there any reason (I'm thinking legal, mostly) why someone else
>>>>> couldn't in principle independently implement a D compiler? The D
>>>>> community is reasonably large and full of smart people, so I'm sure 
>>>>> the
>>>>> talent exists. Right now the motivation for creating a third party
>>>>> compiler is low, but if Walter disappeared that might change.
>>>> An independent D compiler isn't a problem. There are even several in 
>>>> the works already.
>>>> The more likely problem is the D spec: it's copyrighted by Digital 
>>>> Mars, so only Digital Mars (and those it authorizes[1] to do so) may 
>>>> distribute it (and presumably nobody else may distribute modified 
>>>> versions). So until copyright runs out (unless Walter/Digital Mars 
>>>> transfers control of the spec over to some other person or 
>>>> organization[2]) the only option for continued evolution of the 
>>>> language may be a complete rewrite of the spec (perhaps based on the 
>>>> available compiler, but not on the current spec).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [1] I'm not sure if anyone else is currently authorized; even Tango 
>>>> (which has permission to redistribute DMD itself) seems to leave the 
>>>> spec out of their binary distributions that include DMD.
>>> Frankly, it's a topic we never broached with Walter.  We've simply 
>>> been trying to keep the inclusion of Digital Mars stuff to a minimum 
>>> as an act of good faith.
>>
>> Walter,make it gnu if u pass on.  i dont trust anyone in particular to 
>> carry the torch.
> 
> (channeling Walter)
> "It is gnu already.  GDC."
> 
> --bb

Hmm... is it?  I thought that it wasn't unless all copyright is passed 
to  GNU... that was the main issue of why GNU will not include it in 
GCC.  They won't accept the code, and maintain it, unless they own all 
rights to it. And Walter wasn't willing (understandably) to relinquish 
all rights to them.  GDC is developed independently of GNU.

-JJR