Re: RPG 'CPAN' site

David,

James K. clearly made the case that I've been fumbling toward. (thanks
James!) In a nutshell, if all I want to do is use your IFS service program
in my POS software, I then have to agree to hand over all the source for my
product, not just the IFS code.

Even if that's "not exactly" how it works, the FUD that surrounds the GPL is
enough to convince me that I should just write my own IFS routines to be on
the safe side. That's how we end up with 17 IFS service programs (one for
each ILE programmer in the world). ;-)

James has also correctly pointed out that I've taken this thread off-topic!
I'll stop here and continue on OSS400 if there is anything more to say.

Thanks,

John Taylor


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Morris" <David.Morris@plumcreek.com>
To: <rpg400-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 4:34 PM
Subject: Re: RPG 'CPAN' site


> John,
>
> I think I see where you are coming from. You can use the GPL
> software in your applications all you want. You just can't sell
> the combination to someone else. You can charge a distribution
> charge like IBM does with some of their tools.
>
> In our case, most good Struts consultants are charging from
> $80 - $200 per hour. They get paid to write an enhancement,
> and then contribute that back to the Community (they don't
> have to).  The benefit to them is that they become recognized
> as an expert and their services become more valuable.
>
> >From what I have seen no small time vendor is going to
> compete with the software that is coming out of the open
> source process. Look at Struts, Cocoon, Apache, Linux,
> POI, etc. Even being big is no guarantee, IBM is going to
> have a hard time with WebSphere, which relies on open
> technologies but can't keep up with the rate of change.
>
> David Morris