[Mono-list] the run-time system and the GPL

[Thomas F. Burdick]

Andy Tai writes:
 > It is Ok to license the run-time system (the virtual
 > machine, the jit) under the GPL, and that will not
 > impact the program being interpreted by the run-time
 > system (like Java byte code on top of a Java VM).

CLISP, a GPL'ed Common Lisp byte-code based system, is GPL'ed, with
the additional note that use of the standard language interface (as
specified in the ANSI standard) will not be considered "linking", but
using non-standard CLISP extensions is considered "linking" for the
purposes of the GPL.  This means that embedding CLISP in a C program,
using the foreign function interface, etc., require that the program
be GPL'ed, while writing portable code does not.  If one wanted any
looser a definition of "linking" I don't see any advantage over using
the LGPL.  Personally, I think that the LGPL is the way to go for
something like this, which really is similar in quality to the C library.