Re: Scheme Implementers

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

>> I think several Schemes already have a dynamic FFI with a C parser.
>> Bigloo has one (info "(bigloo) Automatic extern clauses generation"),
>> and it’s GPL’d code, which we could reuse.  Larceny has something too.
>
> Oh, great. Can Guile reuse GPL'd code, though, since it is LGPL?

We could have GPL modules, though that would be a case-by-case
decision.

In this case it may be a bad idea; OTOH it could be argued that the C
parser is invoked only a compile-time, and thus users don’t have to be
GPL too, just like applications compiled with GCC don’t have to be GPL.
But, hmm, that’s tricky.  ;-)

> I see that Larceny is licensed under the LGPL, but the copyright is
> probably not assigned to the FSF. Would reusing that be possible?

Yes, if there are good reasons to do so.  There are several modules in
Guile with non-FSF copyright.

> Just to be clear about the overall idea, what I'd like to do is to
> work on new features with as many people as possible, and to duplicate
> as little code as possible, because I think this would lead to more
> cool things made with Scheme, which would ultimately be better for all
> of us who like using the language. So that is why I would like to work
> with other Schemes on things like the C parser.

Some people have been building software on top of R6RS with portability
in mind, like Andreas (hi!).  That’s another way to share efforts with
others.

Thanks,
Ludo’.