Re: PROPOSAL: Objective-C++

[Joe Buck]

On Nov 15, 2001, Stan Shebs <shebs@apple.com> wrote:

"Erik M. Buck" wrote:
> >> Apple's Objective-C run-time is already open-source as part of Darwin.
> >> If Apple ever donated their Objective-C run-time to the FSF (presumably
> >> under GPL or LGPL), they would probably have to stop using it themselves:

Stan Shebs wrote:
> > Not an issue.  libobjc has one of those "special exceptions" to
> > allow its use in non-GPL programs, and a donated objc4 would have
> > a similar provision.  Take a look at the top of any libobjc source
> > file to see how it reads.

Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> Besides, whenever you assign copyright of your code to the FSF, the
> FSF grants you back the rights to do pretty much anything you could do
> with the code before donating it.

But this grant-back isn't transferable to customers, so without explicit
permission in the license Apple couldn't give their customers permission
to do something that the license forbids.  Still, it's moot, the donated
library would need to have the special exception.