hasen wrote:

> 
> Who is this Symantec entity that's preventing D from being truely open source and forcing Walter to put crap in the license?
> 
> Are they the same Symantec at http://www.symantec.com/ ?


Some of this info is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symantec#Founding

It really shouldn't be a problem. Backend is not free(dom) but frontend is gpl so can be used with any other backend no problem as long as the other backend respect the frontend's gpl. Free enough frontend. How free do you need in that truely open source statement?


> How feasibly would it be to rewrite that portion as free software

Very and is exactly what ldc is http://dsource.org/projects/ldc

Tim Matthews wrote:
> hasen wrote:
> 
>>
>> Who is this Symantec entity that's preventing D from being truely open source and forcing Walter to put crap in the license?
>>
>> Are they the same Symantec at http://www.symantec.com/ ?
> 
> 
> Some of this info is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Mars
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symantec#Founding
> 
> It really shouldn't be a problem. Backend is not free(dom) but frontend is gpl so can be used with any other backend no problem as long as the other backend respect the frontend's gpl. Free enough frontend. How free do you need in that truely open source statement?
> 
> 
>> How feasibly would it be to rewrite that portion as free software
> 
> Very and is exactly what ldc is http://dsource.org/projects/ldc

OK, there is/was also GDC, but I heard it's kinda died.

That's not my point though.

I think that the official/reference implementation needs to be completely open-source.

hasen wrote:

> 
> That's not my point though.
> 
> I think that the official/reference implementation needs to be completely open-source.
> 

Because I'm bored I am actually replying to this topic. First how "open" do you like your source?

1. Open as in all code available? (This is where dmd is now)

2. Open as in gpl? Can derive more work from it if the source code is still available in the derived work. (This is where dmd front end is. Possible to re write backend and that is what ldc has done)

3. Open as in bsd license? Can derive work from it close up the new stuff and sell it. (llvm is actually ncsa license and dang is an attempt to make a D parser for it in the similar style to what clang did for C/C++)

Once you have decided on your license you can then proceed to choosing what parts of what project to re write or maybe you just like starting from scratch anyway.

Finally get the project going stable for a long time then ask for it to be considered as the reference implementation. You can't just drop dmd's existence / declare no such reference implementation while everyone runs around hurrying to build the completely open one.

Tim Matthews wrote:
> hasen wrote:
> 
>>
>> That's not my point though.
>>
>> I think that the official/reference implementation needs to be completely open-source.
>>
> 
> Because I'm bored I am actually replying to this topic. First how "open" do you like your source?
> 
> 1. Open as in all code available? (This is where dmd is now)
> 
> 2. Open as in gpl? Can derive more work from it if the source code is still available in the derived work. (This is where dmd front end is. Possible to re write backend and that is what ldc has done)
> 
> 3. Open as in bsd license? Can derive work from it close up the new stuff and sell it. (llvm is actually ncsa license and dang is an attempt to make a D parser for it in the similar style to what clang did for C/C++)
> 
> Once you have decided on your license you can then proceed to choosing what parts of what project to re write or maybe you just like starting from scratch anyway.
> 
> Finally get the project going stable for a long time then ask for it to be considered as the reference implementation. You can't just drop dmd's existence / declare no such reference implementation while everyone runs around hurrying to build the completely open one.

Who said anything about dropping dmd?

hasen wrote:

> Who said anything about dropping dmd?

What are you doing then? I need something to argue about but this feels like a guessing game. Whats your next move.