zortech - symantec - digital mars

[Ali]

On Saturday, 3 February 2018 at 15:47:59 UTC, Ali wrote:
> Out of curiosity
>
> What is the history between dmd and symantec
> I was able to find few things online
>
> I know that there once was a company called zorland, which 
> later becamse
> zortech
>
> Zortech, created c/c++ compilers
> Symantec tookover zortech, to get into the compiler business
>
> Walter Albright, was part of Zortech (not clear if he was the 
> founder or an employee)
>
> But this is what I was able to find ends
>
> How was dmd started in Symantec, did they sell a D compiler for 
> a while, did they use it internally as a competitive advantage, 
> what was Symantec plans for D?
>
> Just curious .. if Walter care to share, or if someone else 
> knows more than I do, please share

I found this link

https://dlang.org/blog/2017/10/25/dmd-windows-and-c/

And I think those few lined quoted below answers one of my 
question, How did Symantec have any rights to the dmd backend

"When a new programming language is born these days, it’s not 
uncommon for its tooling to be built on top of an existing 
toolchain"

"So it was a no-brainer to make use of his existing tools and 
compiler backend and just focus on making a new frontend for DMD."

"Finally, Symantec had the legal rights to the existing backend, 
which meant their license would apply to DMD."

Some people had the impression that D started as a closed source 
project( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16270937 )
I believe this proves this perception wrong