I've had a few people mention that they've had difficulty compiling a certain part of one of our open source products called Maia (http://www.dotr.com/index.php/products/maia).
Turns out that a while ago we unpacked the adecomm.pl library to get hold of an include called oeideservice.i, which is used by a part of the system.
So, we thought that the best thing would be to include (ha ha) the include in Maia.
However, the header has a very propriety header
/*************************************************************/
/* Copyright (c) 1984-2006 by Progress Software Corporation */
/* */
/* All rights reserved. No part of this program or document */
/* may be reproduced in any form or by any means without */
/* permission in writing from PROGRESS Software Corporation. */
/*************************************************************/
Where would we stand on this ? I expect that we would need to get written permission from Progress to include it in our Maia product. But what happens if someone downloads Maia, and then includes it in their project ?
Would they need permission from Progress as well ?
Or, could we create a new version of the include that mimics the API (AFAIK, making a copy of API calls is legal. However, I would not want to be renditioned because of a couple of lines of code )
Any thoughts ?
Or, could we create a new version of the include that mimics the API (AFAIK, making a copy of API calls is legal. However, I would not want to be renditioned because of a couple of lines of code )
Any thoughts ?
Besides the potential for a legal issue here (I'm not going to comment on that), that might involve the risk, that you need to provide different versions of your include file that fit for different Progress releases.
There really are two separate questions here -- is it allowed and is it the right thing to do?
As for being allowed, it is hard to imagine PSC getting very exercised if you publish something they have already published and you preserve their copyright. Nevertheless, it is good form to get permission before using any copyright material. If you ask, they may or may not say yes since anyone with a legitimate license already has a copy and all that is necessary is that you provide clear install instructions or an automated process to extract this from the .pl., i.e., there is no real need for you to distribute it independently.
As for it being the right thing to do, that depends on what it is. I have recently been looking at some pieces of ProLint, for example, in which there are connections both to the ADM and to Roundtable. Given that their is code provided by the other vendor for the purpose of interfacing, the right thing to do is to use their code to make the interface. That reduces the likelihood that they will change things in a later version and break the link because they will presumably supply a new component which is likely to have the same interface. Moreover, if this is a piece of code which has changed over time, then using the one on the user's system is a good way of insuring that you have the correct one for the version.
Which said, it depends on what the code does. If it is linkage code to the other software, then probably you should be using their version. If, however, it is simply a piece of code that happens to do what you want and doesn't really have any connection to the other system, then you are probably better off creating your own ... especially since there is a fair chance one can do a better job.
jmls wrote:
Turns out that a while ago we unpacked the adecomm.pl library to get hold of an include called oeideservice.i, which is used by a part of the system.Where would we stand on this ? I expect that we would need to get written permission from Progress to include it in our Maia product. But what happens if someone downloads Maia, and then includes it in their project ?
Since this is aimed at developers, one option would be to include step-by-step instructions on how to extract this file from their local adecomm.pl library. Since you're not distributing the source file, then legal problem is solved! (One would hope...)
Since this is aimed at developers, one option would be to include step-by-step instructions on how to extract this file from their local adecomm.pl library. Since you're not distributing the source file, then legal problem is solved! (One would hope...)
Sounds reasonable!
And he could even distribute a batch file (or shell script) that runs in the proenv environment and does so. %DLC% is knonw there so the .pl is always %DLC%/src/adecomm.pl or so.
That would make it even easier.
yeah, was wanting to have to avoid doing that ;(
Perhaps we will have no choice
jmls schrieb:
yeah, was wanting to have to avoid doing that ;(
Perhaps we will have no choice
Email Rob Straight and Sunil directly. My guess is they are pretty busy these days with getting OE11 on the road.
I sympathize with the problem. There is a need to unpack something from a .pl for ProLint that seems to be a stumbling block for a lot of people, but I think that really clear directions should get you past that, even if you don't want to develop a script to do it automatically. There is something to be said for manual since one is fiddling around with their Progress installation, which not everyone may like, so if you do provide a script, I would also provide a question before it does it and manual instructions for people to follow if they don't want to use the automated approach.