[Mono-list] DateTime / TimeZone

[Laurent Guerby]

Dan Lewis wrote:
> Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the problem is that pnetlib is under GPL.
> Since the Mono corlib is under an X11 licence, we can't use their code without
> becoming GPL also (although they can use ours). This is a shame because by the
> looks of things there's some really nice stuff in there.

DateTime.cs is under full GPL indeed.

 From <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/x.html>, which I believe is quite 
relevant here,
I quote:

<<
When you work on the core of X, on programs such as the X server, Xlib, 
and Xt, there is a practical reason not to use copyleft. The XFree86 
group does an important job for the community in maintaining these 
programs, and the benefit of copylefting our changes would be less than 
the harm done by a fork in development. So it is better to work with the 
XFree86 group and not copyleft our changes on these programs. Likewise 
for utilities such as xset and xrdb, which are close to the core of X, 
and which do not need major improvements. At least we know that the 
XFree86 group has a firm commitment to developing these programs as free 
software.
 >>

May be it would be better if Ximian and the FSF resolve the issue,
for pnetlib, may be the FSF can be convinced to go the same
route as XFree86 for the common part of the runtime (the pure C# part
not linked to the compiler implementation), which
after all is just an implementation of an ECMA standard which
has to compete with an already existing non free implementation.

Of course, as Miguel said, free software developpers are welcomed
to extend the runtime with new original APIs, and for these extensions,
GPL or LGPL might be more appropriate than the X11 license for these
pieces of software.

Sincerely,

-- 
Laurent Guerby <guerby@acm.org>