Re: [Help-smalltalk] GNU Smalltalk licensing

[Paolo Bonzini]

David Lázaro Saz wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I've been using GNU Smalltalk for some time and found it very useful. 
> It's a nice implementation of the Smalltalk-80 language. Thanks for your 
> efforts.
>
> I also have a question regarding licensing. The sources include both the 
> GNU GPL and LGPL but it isn't specified what license applies to what 
> files. Well, in fact I found that the various libgst files specify in 
> their comments that they use the GPL. Is that the case? I hope not 
> because then I won't be able to use GNU Smalltalk for a commercial 
> project that I'm beginning to work in.

No, unless you modify the VM.  The VM is under the General Public 
License, so modifications to it must be under the GPL.  The base classes 
however is under the LGPL, so programs "linked" with them (i.e. in the 
same image) can be proprietary.

If you look closer, the GPL parts are identified as "part of GNU 
Smalltalk", the LGPL parts are identified as "part of the GNU Smalltalk 
class library".

Paolo