[Gambas-user] Gambas and the GPL

[Rob]

Gambas 0.61 is the first version of Gambas that makes it possible to write 
components in Gambas and share them with others in a precompiled state for 
use in their pwn projects.  This got me thinking about Gambas and how its 
authors would like to interpret the GPL.

Plainly, any components written using the component C API are GPL'ed because 
they're linked against Gambas itself.  With compiled Gambas p-code it's not 
quite so obvious, and depends on whether any code contained within Gambas is 
included in that p-code.  The output of compilers like GCC has long been held 
to be free of GPL restrictions but with a language that compiles to p-code it 
can go either way and I think the decision rests with Benoit and any other 
authors who have touched the interpreter/compiler.  On top of that, we 
already have our first Gambas-written "library" in the form of InputBox, 
which I would assume is GPL since it's part of the Gambas distribution but 
it's unclear to me whether or not a project that uses InputBox would have to 
be GPL as well.

I personally have no interest in releasing Gambas programs without making them 
GPL, but I'm also thinking that there will be some people who might have an 
interest in doing so or in promoting that practice *cough*Lindows*cough* and 
think it may be time for Benoit and the other Gambas developers to decide one 
way or the other whether Gambas output is GPL'ed automatically or not.

Rob