Re: [fluid-dev] Another application using FluidSynth announced

[David Henningsson]

On 09/07/2011 10:38 PM, David Henningsson wrote:
> I'm unfamiliar with exactly how development for iPhone works here. If I
> develop for iPhone, how do I put my own software on there? I mean, even
> Apple would think there should be a way to test your software on the
> real thing before publishing? Is that a legitimate path for distributing
> source code to e g FluidSynth?

From what I can understand the development tools are free to download 
and use, but testing your software on the iPhone or iPad costs $99 per 
year. [1] Interestingly enough, this is a relatively low fee compared to 
buying an iPhone/iPad.

I'm assuming that this "testing" is not crippled in any way to make it 
different from running the App Store distributed one.

> As for my own opinion, I tend to be pragmatic in the sense that I look
> for practical possibilities rather than the letter of the law.

Let me clarify this a bit. LGPL contains a lot of rules and regulations, 
but let me point out the two types of freedom, that the end user is 
given, and that are important to me:

1) Available source code. I e, if the developer fixes a bug in 
FluidSynth and makes that version of FluidSynth publicly available, we 
should be able to take that fix and incorporate it into the next 
FluidSynth release, and release that version under LGPL.

In this case, Rouet can fulfil that requirement by publishing their 
FluidSynth source code changes, or publicly state that they haven't done 
any changes.

2) Updating FluidSynth. If the end user finds a bug in FluidSynth by 
playing around with "Slide control", he/she should be able to fix it and 
run the fixed version on the same hardware. The question is if Apple 
fulfils its part of this deal by the $99 developer program [1]. On one 
hand, the program is widely available and relatively cheap, on the other 
hand, it's still a cost, and Apple can probably choose to deny this 
program on an individual basis. So I'm not really sure what to think 
about it at this point.

Anyway, Rouet can fulfil that requirement by publishing the entire 
source code to "Slide control". I don't know if they can also choose to 
supply some kind of linkable object code, that depends on what you can 
and can't do with XCode.

// David

[1] http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/