Re: Linkage of GPLed GCC to Closed Source via XML or Perl

[Joe Buck <Joe dot Buck at synopsys dot com>]

James Michael DuPont writes:

> It is very simple now. I am not trying to get around
> the GPL, Joe, so you can see that your statement
> should be retracted.

Yes, the tone of my statement was completely inappropriate.  You are not a
bad guy, and I apologize for my original statement.  Furthermore this is
an extremely complex issue and I think that at some point the FSF is going
to have to modify the policy somehow.

> The output of the introspector is source code in xml
> format. That is covered by the GPL. Later queried from
> the database, it is also source code, just in a
> different form.

I'm not sure that that will fly.  I retract my accusations against you,
but I don't retract my statements that XML output will provide new ways
of attaching proprietary code to GCC (despite your claims that the GPL
can prevent this).  On the other hand, it appears that various compiler
vendors are talking about common XML formats to represent parsed C++
code.  If this comes about, any resistance on the part of GCC will be
useless.