On 21/05/14 02:16, Max Barraclough wrote:
The DMD frontend is licensed under the GPL, which is 'viral': if your code links against it, you'll have to release your code as GPL.
There's no need to link with DMD.
Strictly, John is right in that the GPL doesn't prevent you from charging for your code, but seeing as that code will be GPL'ed, anyone who buys it will then be free to share it publicly free of charge. (You're also required to provide source.) John's idea of having the user provide DMD, rather than bundling it, may or may not be against the letter of the GPL (I'm unsure, but I don't think it's exactly safe ground - your code is still written to the DMD ABI, after all), but it's certainly against the spirit.
It's not against the GPL license [1]. Many companies do this, Apple for example. They've created Xcode which comes (did come) bundled with GCC. Xcode is absolutely not open source. It doesn't need to because it doesn't link with GCC. It uses invokes GCC as an external process to build projects.
The code produce by GPL compiler does not fall under the GPL license [2], if that were the case GCC would be useless for many users and companies.
[1] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLCompatInstaller [2] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CanIUseGPLToolsForNF -- /Jacob Carlborg
