Re: Use Emacs as the IDE for Wolfram Mathematica.

[Jean Louis]

* Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> [2021-05-24 12:35]:
> > (✿╹◡╹) Maybe misconception is on my side or your side, I believe it is
> > in your side.
> 
> Read more ;)

> > gcc is free compiler, and people could make proprietary software with
> > it. But such proprietary software does not change the gcc and not
> > necessarily depend on gcc to get run, but as soon as it depend on some
> > GPL component, then it cannot be made proprietary.
> 
> The license only limits you on what you can distribute, nothing
> else.

It limits you, among other limitations, to distribute free software
program as combined with proprietary program.

It limits you, among other limitations, to make a combined program
with a free software program, unless the free software program is
licensed under the LGPL.

Otherwise you cannot make proprietary program combined with GPL-ed
program.

> > Now CLISP, Guile, and other programming languages may be GNU GPL
> > software. When you make a program to be run by Guile, CLISP, those
> > programs could be proprietary software as they do not change nor
> > modify the Guile, nor CLISP. They are just executed by free
> > software. But the overall result depends of components used in the
> > program, you cannot just include GPL components as you wish and want
> > in your proprietary program.
> > 
> > Would the Emacs Lisp program be exclusively run from command line as
> > run by Emacs as programming language then such program could be
> > licensed as proprietary software. But that also would depend if your
> > program is using the GPL components or not, which most probably would
> > use.
> > 
> > (⌐■_■) So the question is answered here:
> > https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL
> > 
> > If you just interpret the Emacs Lisp, it is fine, but question is, do
> > you bind to GPL components? Most probably you do.
> > 
> > Would you make an Emacs Lisp program that does not bind to any of the
> > GPL components then such program could be proprietary. But if you do
> > bind to any components, it cannot be proprietary.
> 
> > For example, if you do something like:
> > 
> > (require 'seq)
> 
> You can certainly do that as long as you do not distribute seq with it in
> a proprietary blob.  What you cannot do is limit what people can do with
> seq.

People can do anything, we speak what is allowed by the license, now
what one can do. The license of a GPL program does not allow making a
combined program with it and not license it under same terms.

I am asking you to make your homework first, as it is not good
spreading misleading information on the mailing list that remains in
the public forever.

Read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License

Quote:

The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software
license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license
allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software
component released under the LGPL into their own (even proprietary)
software without being required by the terms of a strong copyleft
license to release the source code of their own components. However,
any developer who modifies an LGPL-covered component is required to
make their modified version available under the same LGPL license. For
proprietary software, code under the LGPL is usually used in the form
of a shared library, so that there is a clear separation between the
proprietary and LGPL components. The LGPL is primarily used for
software libraries, although it is also used by some stand-alone
applications. 

Read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License#Differences_from_the_GPL

Emacs is not LGPL, and license does not allow combining code with
proprietary programs. So, no, you cannot require 'seq or any other
Emacs library in a proprietary program without violation of the GPL.

-- 
Jean

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