[Bug c/32314] for gcc-4.2gcc-4disable-decimal-float not working on i686, powerpc, sparc. gcc-4.3.0

["malitzke at metronets dot com" <gcc-bugzilla at gcc dot gnu dot org>]

------- Comment #10 from malitzke at metronets dot com  2007-06-17 23:29 -------
Let me reiterate: I am not admitted to the bar in any USA state, nor
the District of Columbia. Hence, I can not and I am not offering
any legal advice. For legal advice see a lawyer admitted to the bar.
Yes, I have worked extensively with lawyers preparing contracts, briefs
and filings to regulatory agencies and also provided sworn depositions
and know some of the jargon.

Lets us start with a package, GLIBC, that I consider consistent and
which gives me corresponding reassurance.

First a randomly selected introductory paragraph and the the paragraph
that comes close to the stated GCC exception because of the reference
to the GNU Lesser General Public License.

   Copyright (C) 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   This file is part of the GNU C Library.

   The GNU C Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
   modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
   License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
   version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

COPYING and COPYING.LIB are in the root directory of the package, and I
assume these two apply to the package as a whole. 

COPYING has as its title "GNU General Public License" and COPYING.LIB
has as its tile "GNU Lesser General Public License".

Section 6 I take as the essence of is termed the GGC-exception. But, 
to me it is section 13:


  13. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
versions of the Lesser General Public License from time to time.
Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version,
but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

that really gives me confort and that is missing in the GCC verbiage.

Now even in the directory gcc, ever since gcc-3.3.6

gcc-3.3.6_except_libgcc_c

In addition to the permissions in the GNU General Public License, the
Free Software Foundation gives you unlimited permission to link the
compiled version of this file into combinations with other programs,
and to distribute those combinations without any restriction coming
from the use of this file.  (The General Public License restrictions
do apply in other respects; for example, they cover modification of
the file, and distribution when not linked into a combine (sic)
executable.)


gcc-3.3.6_except_libgcc_h

As a special exception, if you link this library with other files,
some of which are compiled with GCC, to produce an executable,
this library does not by itself cause the resulting executable
to be covered by the GNU General Public License.
This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons why
the executable file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.

the two cited parapgraphs are not equal and they imperfectly
convey some of the idea of COPYING.LIB, which should then be
removed from the root directory.

As each release is really a new work the exception paragraph
could be removed with a simple sed script. This then would
bring back the dreaded viral property as advocated by Mr.
Stallman.


However, when a library provides a significant unique capability, like GNU
Readline, that's a horse of a different color. The Readline library implements
input editing and history for interactive programs, and that's a facility not
generally available elsewhere. Releasing it under the GPL and limiting its use
to free programs gives our community a real boost. At least one application
program is free software today specifically because that was necessary for
using Readline.


In conclusion, the GCC_exception paragraph needs the something like section 13
quoted above


-- 

malitzke at metronets dot com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|RESOLVED                    |UNCONFIRMED
         Resolution|INVALID                     |


http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=32314