license question

[Tom Tromey]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Matthew Reilly <paul@pajato.com> writes:

My up front disclaimer: I don't speak for Cygnus.  The below
represents my understanding of their position.  It could be wrong in
some repsects.  I don't necessarily agree with it, so don't flame me
if you don't like it.

Paul> I'm guessing this is because Cygnus desires to release libgcj
Paul> under two licenses, LGPL for the general public and another
Paul> license for embedded customers.  If I understand correctly, this
Paul> can only be done if Cygnus owns the source.

Yes.  This is what we do.

Paul> Does this mean that software released using LGPL can't be used
Paul> for libgcj unless Cygnus owns the copyright?

Basically, yes.  There are some caveats, I'd imagine.

Paul> The reason that I'm asking is because I'm trying to investigate all
Paul> the possible AWT solutions for libgcj.  So far these are the viable
Paul> options that I've read about in the archives:

Paul> 1.  Use GTK+ heavyweight peers, which are cross platform and can take
Paul>     advantage of themes ( http://gtk.themes.org/ ).  I think CLASSPATH
Paul>     is using this approach.

Paul> 2.  Use Glib lightweight peers with an approach similar to Kaffe.

AWT might fall into the caveat range.
I don't know, since I don't know enough about AWT to speak
intelligently about it.

But: if it is hard to write a single AWT implementation that can be
targeted to Gtk+ and some other (embedded, perhaps custom) widget set,
then I think the fact that Cygnus does not own Gtk+ would *not* be a
barrier.  In this situation having a Gtk+ AWT would be helpful
regardless of licensing issues

On the other hand, if it is possible to build a cross-platform
(including embedded) AWT, then Cygnus would probably want more
control.  In this scenario it might be that Cygnus would want to own
parts of AWT (whatever parts we would re-use when shipping to an
embedded customer).

I personally would really like to see a Gtk+-based AWT for gcj.
(I'm also a (very) occasional Gnome hacker...)

Tom