The Death of D. (Was Tango vs Phobos)

[Sean Kelly]

Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> "Walter Bright" wrote
>> Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> 
>>> Also, I would like to know specifically what Walter needs from the Tango 
>>> team.  What could it be that he needs that the Tango team is against?
>> What specifically I'd like from the Tango team is explicit permission for 
>> the Phobos team to go over the Tango code and be able to copy/use whatever 
>> portions of it are necessary to get the two libraries to have a compatible 
>> core, and to relicense those parts under the corresponding Phobos license.
> 
> What is wrong with giving you permission to go over a given list of files 
> that are specifically owned by people who don't mind you using their code? 
> This should be adequate for creating a common core, as the core modules are 
> well separated from the user portions.  And why must they be relicensed?  I 
> don't really understand that part (but from Sean's messages, it looks like 
> you already have that permission).

I believe the issue is fear of "taint."  In short, if Walter so much as 
glances at a module and it turns out that one of the authors isn't 
someone who has licensed his code to Walter then he could later accuse 
Walter of violating his copyright simply because something in Walters 
code looked vaguely similar.  It's why Walter has never looked at GDC, 
for example, since he is in the business of writing compilers. 
Personally, I think copyright law is utterly ridiculous, but what can 
you do.

> What if someone gathered all the appropriate files together in a single 
> package, and had the Tango developers sign off that Sean was the sole owner 
> of the files in that package?  Would that be enough?

I actually send Walter a bundled copy of the Tango runtime years ago for 
just this reason, and didn't realize that Walter had never looked at it 
until probably a year later when Walter said he'd never looked at Tango 
at all.


Sean