Sounds like you've got pretty good ground to be free of Allaire, but i recommend that you contact a lawyer before you do anything. I think you're going at it the right way about sending it to Allaire for them to see it first, it shows your good faith. I'm very curious to know what this would do to Allaire's stock price.... make it go up or down? On one side if there is a free alternative to CF people may buy less copies. On the other side, if it is not as complete as their version, people may buy more copies of Allaire's version. What a beautifully complex beast you've just unleashed! If you do release it, let me know! ;) Steve Nelson Jeff Bevill wrote: > > Steve, > > I assume you mean copy the CFML script syntax (<cfquery>) ?. I have never > worked for Allaire and I have never seen any internal source code listings > having to do with Cold Fusion Server. I didn't reverse engineer, debug, or > decompile any of Allaire's software in anwyay. I don't even own Cold Fusion > Server. The CFML language specification is easily obtainable via a search > engine, and some CF dev sites have an online reference for the entire > language. The CFML language syntax is quite easy to implement, since it's > pretty much like HTML syntax (except it needs to be parsed differently). > > Lesstif is a free open source alternative to the commercial library Motif > (the function call prototypes are the same as the commercial version). XMMS > (X Multimedia System) is a very similar application to Winamp that runs on > unix platforms. OpenCF is an open source alternative for the CFML language. > OpenCF in it's current state is far primitive to the software that Allaire > offers (obviously), as I have stated in my last email. So I guess I'm > having a hard time understanding what it is that I would be sued for ? > Perhaps I need to contact a laywer specializing in software development > (this costs money though) for legal advice. If any of you know the legal > issues in this area, please enlighten me. > > If enough people want the _similar alternative_ open source version, I will > mail my src code to Allaire and have them OK it first (not sure what open > src license I'm gonna use yet). This seems like the best method to avoid > legal action, stress, headache, etc. > > Does anyone have any interest in working on a project like this ? > > Not sure what you meant by the Alliare stock comment ?!??? > > Thanks for the interest and feedback Steve! > > Jeff Bevill > > -----Original Message----- > From: Steve Nelson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 12:21 AM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: Home brew open source CFML engine. (somewhat long) > > DOH! bye bye Allaire Stock! > > Jeff, this sounds fantastic! And I'd love to see it.... just a small > warning. Allaire might not take kindly to this, I don't know if they > have any standing ground since you're actually copying their code (i'm > assuming), but they have a lot of money, so expect to get a cease & > desist order at your doorsteps. Until then, tell us more! > > Steve > > Jeff Bevill wrote: > > > > Dear CF Enthusiasts, > > > > A few friends and I over the past 1 1/2 yrs have been working on creating > an > > Open Source CFML parser engine that is somewhat similar to the commercial > > product (CF server). Currently, there is support for most of the > > tags/functions up to version 4.0 that don't have anything to do with > > platform dependencies (file permissions on unix - mode 777, etc). The > > engine is very basic and pretty much lame since we have no clue what the > > hell we are doing, it's a project that started mainly for amusement at the > > time. Although, one could actually install this software and run a pretty > > simple (very simple at this point) cfml driven web site (install requires > > someone with knowledge involving autoconf, make, gcc or MSVC) on a few > > different platforms (unix apache / win32 iis). We have also taken a stab > at > > a CFML/HTML editor on linux using GTK+, this is also very pre-alpha. The > > editor (especially for non windows platforms) is quite complicated and > would > > take awhile to complete due to the need for html editor/browser > > functionality (I believe the browser portion in HomeSite/CF Studio is > > implemented using the IE re-usable broswer technology, but I'm not sure). > > > > The database connection support is extremely limited with just MySQL/plain > > file (yes it's lame) support now, but other drivers could easily be added > > since the design of the software is extremely modular (we studied PHP > engine > > src quite extensively). Everything is driven via an abstraction API > > (database drivers, thread libraries, web server api's, etc.) modular > > interface to ease the use of porting to multiple platforms. Most of the > > code is written in C as my C++ knowledge is very rusty, but getting > better. > > I plan on converting to C++ as this will help many security hole related > > issues (buffer overflows, type checking, etc..) come to the fore front and > > would be more object oriented. > > > > As an intermediate user of the CFML language over the years I have had > many > > ideas and additions that I wanted to add to Cold Fusion, but I thought it > > would be more fun to learn how to develop an actual engine to test the > ideas > > first before recommending them. I would have to say developing one of > these > > engines is not easy. We are a year and 1/2 into it (extremely part time. > > Sometimes taking off months to do other stuff ... like make a living) and > > have probably another few years of part time development (at least) to > make > > it more feature rich/stable (unless of course this becomes a heavily > worked > > on project by many of you guru developers out there). Even so, I am > > seriously considering trashing the whole project for something else. > > Allaire is just creating a kick ass product and their customer support is > > great. Some people ask why I am "re-inventing" the wheel. Again, it was > > started for fun. > > > > I guess my main reason for posting the expose of this software on the > > cf-list list is to put a 'feeler' out to see if people want an open source > > version. We wonder if developers would actually want to spend the time > > working on it with us. Many great innovations have came from open source > > software and it's damn fun as well. *8-) > > > > We haven't released the software to anyone and we're not planning on it > > until we get some legal advice and hear what people think. We also have > no > > intentions of making Allaire lose revenue with this software. Like I > said, > > it was just a fun and amusing project we started a year ago. Allaire has > > also released a crippled version that has most of the functionality of the > > regular server and it is free for many OS. Another reason why I'm > > considering trashing the project. > > > > As you can see I'm quite paranoid about this project, heh. If someone > from > > Allaire is reading this, what are your thoughts on this ? > > > > Any thoughts, flames, etc would be great. Would any of you want an open > > source version ? If so what are the legal issues involved ? Is it > possible > > to create something that is stable enough, rich feature set, and worth > using > > ? Anyone else think this sort of development is fun besides me ? Is > there > > any open source version already available (I haven't seen one, at least > > nothing that works worth a darn) ? > > > > I have mentioned a bit about the software on IRC #coldfusion / efnet and > > have gotten several positive inquires, but I still need to research this > a > > little more. This list is great way to do that. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Jeff Bevill > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------------------- > > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ > > Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists or send > a message with 'unsubscribe' in the body to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > -------------------- > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ > Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists or send a > message with 'unsubscribe' in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ > Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists or send a message >with 'unsubscribe' in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists or send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
