Licensing, etc.

I don't know about anyone else, but I would appreciate a brief epistle from
Forth, Inc. describing their licensing policy, perhaps with simple
descriptions of "ok" and "forbidden" usage. I know this is covered in the
manuals, but I have talked to several SF users who had opinions different
from mine.

As I understand it, anything goes if you are using your own copy of SF and
"including" source code files: after all, you are just a single user using
something you own. The same would be true of source code distributed for
use by others with their own copy of SF.

Also, pre-defining Forth words and then "evaluating" them via a text file
loaded at run time (e.g., in a turnkeyed app) shouldn't be a problem, per
recent SFTalk discussions. After all, the user is just executing
pre-defined (and unchangeable) words, similar to what is commonly done in a
turnkeyed app by picking an option from a pull-down menu.

A typical problem area would be with a turnkeyed program that will be
generally distributed. As I understand it, you cannot distribute or sell a
turnkeyed program that duplicates the capabilities of the SwiftForth
development environment. This would encompass things such as "including"
text files that have defining words. Of course, this isn't real simple to
do, because of the lack of a dictionary in turnkeyed apps :) I am sure that
Forth, Inc. would strongly object to any attempts to "work around" this
limitation.

I ran into this problem area when I wanted to turnkey (but not for general
distribution) an existing application that assembled 8051 code from a text
file. I knew that I should not attempt to compile and execute defining
words from an "assembler" source code file (like the existing code). But,
it was possible to pre-define words in the turnkeyed image that knew how to
lay down byte sequences in a pre-allocated target image, which is all I
really needed to do. As I understand it, a turnkeyed application of this
type would not violate the letter or spirit of the Forth, Inc. policy.

However, I would have someone at Forth, Inc. look at the program if I were
planning to distribute it freely or sell it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
sftalk_at_forth.com The SwiftForth programming discussion email list
To unsubscribe, send subject "unsubscribe sftalk" to listar_at_forth.com
For help with listar commands, send subject "help" to listar_at_forth.com
Archives are located at http://www.forth.com/sftalk -- check them out!
Search the archives! Visit http://www.forth.com/search for details.
Received on Thu Sep 06 2001 - 08:14:51 PDT