[Mono-devel-list] Looking at the code of Mono

[Philip Van Hoof]

Hi there,

I often take a look at the code of Mono to know how the greatest Mono
programmers did something (hehe). I don't copy-paste but often want use
the same techniques and idea's that can be found in the class-libraries
of Mono, in applications that are not LGPL nor GPL nor any compatible
OpenSource and/or Free Software license (this is for customers (and) at
work).

Is that allowed -and okay or should I not look at the code of Mono for
such purposes. Being a code-reader of the Mono classlibraries it's
almost unavoidable that I "learn" something and probably implement it
the way I have learned it by reading LGPL licensed code.. 

I know that Copy-Pasting is not the way to go (not legal) and since most
classes and namespaces are reimplementations of what Microsoft offers in
his standard .NET FrameWork (so copying an entire class is stupid) it's
something that I probably don't need at all.

but I can imagine myself wanting to learn about something specific by
reading the code of Mono and then using that knowledge for applications
that I create at work.

For example today I started reading the code of the BitArray()-class to
learn myself how to work with for example the shift operators (<< and
>>). What I eventually had to create was not binded to the code of the
BitArray() itself. However, it's possible that I someday find something
that is just very usable for a specific problem that I have...

What are the politics and my possibilities in that case ? How strict is
that LGPL license ? Does it depend on the Author of the code ?

A good example would be if I wanted to create a WebControl that looks
very much like an existing WebControl but that does not really share the
same members (so inheritance is not really an option).... and my boss
would not allow me to make this Control using a license compatible with
the LGPL nor the rest of Mono.

Note that I am just asking all this ;) .. at this moment there is no
code that has been stolen, yet ! :) And I am a small contributor of the
Mono project myself. So don't start flaming me now :-).



-- 
Philip Van Hoof, Software Developer @ Cronos
home: me at freax dot org
work: Philip dot VanHoof at cronos dot be
http://www.freax.be, http://www.freax.eu.org