Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!ginosko!uunet!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: BISON, GCC, and the GNU public license. (Re: increasing yacc states) Message-ID: <5207@ficc.uu.net> Date: 23 Jul 89 14:20:16 GMT References: <26@ark1.nswc.navy.mil> <23837@santra.UUCP> Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 38 In article <23837@santra.UUCP>, mikko@titan.uucp (Mikko Tiusanen) writes: > In article <5077@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: > >In article <26@ark1.nswc.navy.mil>, dsill@ark1.nswc.navy.mil (Dave Sill) writes: > >> First, being required to freely distribute code does not exactly > >> prevent you from using the compiler. > >If you're not a private hobbyist or a university (and not even always then) > >it sure does. > Could you expand on why this does prevent from using it? If I'm not a private hobbyist or a university, then what is the purpose of writing this code? To make a profit off it, of course... either because it provides a competitive advantage, or because the code (or some system for which the code is part) is to be sold for profit. Stallman's Marxist dialectic notwithstanding, if I can't make a profit off the code (again speaking as a commercial software developer, not as the author of a popular shareware utility for the Amiga) I'm not going to write it. Since that's not an option (we gotta eat) then I'll have to use some other compiler. I'm not saying Stallman should give me GCC. Unlike him, I'm not going to deny anyone profit (and he does profit from GCC... maybe not directly financially, but it's only a Marxist fallacy that negotiable goods are the only form of profit). I'm just explaining why I can't use it. > Given, of > course, that as far as I understand, you are allowed to charge > reasonable copying costs. How many man-hours do "reasonable copying costs" involve? What about development costs? -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. | "...helping make the world Personal: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com. `-_-' | a quote-free zone..." Quote: Have you hugged your wolf today? 'U` | -- hjm@cernvax.cern.ch