Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!johnson
From: johnson@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: Re: Some people won't use GCC
Message-ID: <109800002@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 7 Jun 89 16:24:00 GMT
Lines: 19
Nf-ID: #R:<8906051911.AA00256@sugar-bombs.:-43:p.cs.uiuc.edu:109800002:000:963
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!johnson    Jun  7 11:24:00 1989


>BUT - it also seems to mean that if I use gcc to compile my software
>then my software is covered by the GPL.  i.e., I am including Gnu
>header files and libraries into my code.  That means that my code "IN
>WHOLE OR IN PART CONTAINS OR IS A DERIVATIVE OF GNU___ OR ANY PART
>THEREOF".  (same arguments about flex, bison...)

>THIS IS THE REASON THAT I (as a seller of commercial software) DON'T
>DARE USE GNU SOFTWARE in any way relating to the products that I ship.

The solution is simple: write your own header files and libraries.
I can't believe it would take more than a man year for a compentant
programmer to recreate everything in the GNU C and C++ libraries.
It would probably take less than six months.  Why doesn't some
enterprising small company redo them this summer and sell them
to companies that are SO worried about the problem?

It is true that lots of companies are worried about the problem.
It is also true that there is an easy solution.