Re: licenses in generated m4 files

[Alexandre Duret-Lutz]

>>> "Peter" == Peter Simons <address@hidden> writes:

 Peter> Alexandre Duret-Lutz writes:
 >> [various points]

 Peter> I think it's better to agree to disagree than to continue
 Peter> discussing this. IMHO, it is highly unlikely that anyone's
 Peter> opinions will be changed no matter how long we continue to
 Peter> argue, so I'd like to focus on the solution instead.

If you don't agree that not generating M4 file do is half of the
solution, I can't help and should indeed stop discussing.  I
don't want to help you waste your time devising something more
complex.

 >>> (1) How does the author choose which license his macro is
 >>> under? How does the markup format specify this
 >>> information?

 >> Wouldn't allowing free text at the top of the macro do
 >> the trick?

 Peter> Allowing a free-text field for the license essentially
 Peter> equals allowing the author to choose any license he wants.

No, it just means the field is not constrained by some tool.  So
you don't have to program all possibilities, do not have to deal
with possible exceptions inherited from elsewhere, or even
dual-licensied files, or whatever.  And above all: so the
submitted file can be distributed as-is.  KISS.

 Peter> In the general case, however, that's not possible
 Peter> because not all licenses are compatible with each
 Peter> other. I don't feel qualified to read an arbitrary
 Peter> license and spot that kind of thing, hence I'd be
 Peter> greatly in favor of limiting the set of supported
 Peter> licenses to those that are known not to conflict.

Let's give the submitter some credit for basic intelligence.  He
wants his macro to be used by other people, so he won't submit a
macro with a license that conflicts with such a goal.

Anyway my point is not that the license should not be
restricted, my point is that this restriction should not be
programmed.

 Peter> I'll need some sort of "comprehensive" list.

The web page already gives one:

| 2. General Requirements
| 
|     * All macros accepted into the archive must be licensed as
|       free software. We accept any GPL-compatible license, as
|       listed on the gnu.org license page page. For consistency,
|       we recommend to use the same license as the Autoconf tool
|       suite itself: the GNU General Public License with this
|       special GPL Exception.

only the recommendation would have to be changed.
-- 
Alexandre Duret-Lutz