[computer-go] Collaboration project. Once again

[Mark Boon]

On 5-aug-2006, at 11:48, Markus Enzenberger wrote:

> On Saturday 05 August 2006 07:15, alain Baeckeroot wrote:
>> Gogui is GPL so ... using its code would have consequences on your  
>> project.
>> BSD license allowed µsoft to reuse BSD network stack in winNT or  
>> win2k
>> (i dont remember) with no know feedback, so for sure it allows  
>> commercial
>> competitors to reuse your code with nothing for you.
>
> GoGui can be used with any Go engines, independent of their  
> license, as long
> as the interface and tools that come with GoGui communicate with  
> the Go
> engine only by using the GTP protocol.
>
> Using code of GoGui directly in your program however is only  
> possible for
> programs that also use the GPL or a GPL compatible license
> (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html).
>

Thank you for clarifying that.

I think it could actually be very helpful to have a very separate  
front-end, communicating via GTP. It helps separation. In that case  
the GPL is not necessarily a problem I assume. As I have mentioned,  
I'd probably like to see some extra display features for internal  
data-structures. This may or may not happen through some GTP  
extensions. If I'd make those extensions, I suppose only those  
extensions need to fall under the GPL.

The other thing that I think would need to be added/modified is  
attachment of GTP engines through sockets. The pipes are all very  
nice, but they put the control of starting and stopping the engine at  
GoGUI. Since it's going to be a completely separate entity, I'd  
rather be able to stop and start the engine by itself and attach  
itself on a socket of GoGUI that keeps perpetually running. That will  
make it possible to run the engine in a source-level debugger and do  
hot-fix debugging and such without needing to jump through hoops.

I must confess that I don't like the viral nature of GPL and am  
actually wary of any association with it. This is a big reason now to  
consider NOT using GoGUI. My preferred license is the MIT type of  
license, which basically allows anything and everything. GPL and MIT  
licenses don't mix.

Mark