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Interesting! Out of curiosity, if this were the Gnu C Compiler, would this be illegal, since the GPL requires the source to be distributed with the binary, and

by barbs 13y ago

Interesting! Out of curiosity, if this were the Gnu C Compiler, would this be illegal, since the GPL requires the source to be distributed with the binary, and the source and binary don't match?

adrusi 13y ago
The is no definition of "match" beyond just what the compiler produces. No spec dictates what the output of a compiler should be.
- barbs 13y ago
  Does this mean that, in theory, if someone wanted to modify some GPL'd code to merge it into a proprietary project, and they didn't want to GPL the entire project, they could modify the compiler to compile the code with the modifications? It'd be a completely round-about way to do it, but in theory would this be legal? If it were a GPL-licensed compiler (e.g. GCC), they wouldn't need to distribute the compiler-code changes, since they would only be using it internally and not distributing the binary for the compiler itself. Of course, they could just modify and use a shared-library of the GPL'd code or whatever. At least, that's my understanding, could be wrong...
  - adrusi 13y ago
    Well they couldn't use gcc, because that's also GPL and they'd have to release its source, but if I'm not missing some more nuanced part of the license, they could probably compile with a fork of clang.
    - barbs 13y ago
      See, I don't think they'd have to release the source for gcc, since they're not releasing the gcc binary. My understanding is, under the GPL, if you distribute the binary, you need to distribute the source.
belorn 13y ago
GPLv3: The “source code” for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. ... The “Corresponding Source” for a work in object code form means all the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to control those activities.

by barbs 13y ago

Interesting! Out of curiosity, if this were the Gnu C Compiler, would this be illegal, since the GPL requires the source to be distributed with the binary, and the source and binary don't match?

adrusi 13y ago

The is no definition of "match" beyond just what the compiler produces. No spec dictates what the output of a compiler should be.

barbs 13y ago
Does this mean that, in theory, if someone wanted to modify some GPL'd code to merge it into a proprietary project, and they didn't want to GPL the entire project, they could modify the compiler to compile the code with the modifications? It'd be a completely round-about way to do it, but in theory would this be legal? If it were a GPL-licensed compiler (e.g. GCC), they wouldn't need to distribute the compiler-code changes, since they would only be using it internally and not distributing the binary for the compiler itself. Of course, they could just modify and use a shared-library of the GPL'd code or whatever. At least, that's my understanding, could be wrong...
- adrusi 13y ago
  Well they couldn't use gcc, because that's also GPL and they'd have to release its source, but if I'm not missing some more nuanced part of the license, they could probably compile with a fork of clang.
  - barbs 13y ago
    See, I don't think they'd have to release the source for gcc, since they're not releasing the gcc binary. My understanding is, under the GPL, if you distribute the binary, you need to distribute the source.

belorn 13y ago

GPLv3: The “source code” for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. ... The “Corresponding Source” for a work in object code form means all the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to control those activities.