[Savannah-hackers] Re: submission of Tenet (Container Library for Ada)- savannah.nongnu.org

[Nick Roberts]

Rudy,

> I'm evaluating the project you submitted for approval in
> Savannah.
>
> First of all sorry for the late reply. Please accept my
> apologies.

Thank you very much for the apologies. However, I'm afraid I've already
applied for and been accepted by BerliOS Developer, for the Tenet project.
Would you please cancel my application at Savannah. Sorry.

> I have a question about the license you choose.  It is compatible
> with the GPL, so in general it is ok.  However, I would like to ask
> you why you want to add the exception.

For your interest, the exception is a consequence of a difference between
the C and Ada programming languages.

Ada has a mechanism for re-use called "generic instantiation" (which C
doesn't); this form of re-use is comparable to that of linking a
pre-compiled library object (but it is not the same as linking). The LGPL,
as currently worded, states that linking a library does not infect the
result, but it does not explicitly state (nor does it seem to imply) the
same for generic instantiation.

It is my desire to permit generic instantiation of Tenet units without
infection, but the LGPL is not suitable for this purpose. Therefore, I would
prefer to use the GPL with the same special exception that the source code
for the GNU New York University Ada Translator (GNAT) -- part of the GNU
Compiler Collection -- uses.

--
Nick Roberts
Jabber: address@hidden [ICQ: 159718630]