Re: gpl, gdb and wigglers.dll

Stan Shebs
2001-05-09T12:41:00Z

Tom Tromey wrote:
>
> >>>>> "Baurjan" == Baurjan Ismagulov <ibr@gantek.com> writes:
>
> Baurjan> Tom:
> Baurjan> Why do you think this code is GPL violation and should
> Baurjan> be removed?
>
> The fact that the wiggler is a dll and is dynamically loaded confuses
> the issue -- for programmers. In fact, it is not any different from
> linking gdb statically against the wiggler library (that whole piece
> of code won't work without that library). If you built a gdb like
> that you couldn't give it to me, because you couldn't give me the
> library sources. (Unless you argued that the library fell under the
> system library exception, which seems unlikely, to say the least.)

I'm hoping this is one of the things that GPL v3 will clarify,
because v2 doesn't address the question of add-on hardware and its
associated drivers. If I bought a special "wiggler PC" that had
a wiggler soldered onto the motherboard, and it only had a Windows
driver that was included with the preinstalled system, then how is a
GDB using that driver different from a cygwin GDB using any of the
other drivers that are in the system?

Stan