Which license to use for MFC based software?

[Carsten Kuckuk]

Evan,

My real problem is, that I'd like to contribute to a GPL'd project. My
contribution would be a standalone program that is GUI intensive.
During daytime I work as a C++/MFC/database programmer and am very
familiar with MS VS as my main tool. So implementing that standalone
program using VS and MFC means that I can be productive immediately
and just solve the problem. Publishing the resulting source code under
GPL would be ideal. I read the GPL years ago, and did not remember the
fine points well, so I was under the impression that the MFC could be
a roadblock here. Nick and the GPL FAQ make it appear as if this is
not a problem. So being under the impression that MFC and GPL would
not play along nicely, I asked my original question as to which
license would work around these perceived problems. Then came Rick's
post about the "Publicly available software clauses" which opened a
totally different can of worms which I myself can avoid as I intend to
use VC 6.0 which doesn't have this clause yet. Switching to a
different library system and using the GNU toolchain (with cygwin, for
example) would eliminate all legal problems, but it would mean that I
have to spend a week or two learning that new library. I have a wife
and a child and a daytime job, so spare time is limited, and thusly I
wanted to see if I can avoid that. That's my real motivation.

Carsten


Guten Tag Evan Prodromou,

am Dienstag, 1. Juni 2004 um 21:22 schrieben Sie:

>>>>>> "CK" == Carsten Kuckuk <ck at kuckuk.com> writes:

EP>     CK> So from a first superficial look it seems that I can use VS
EP>     CK> 6.0 in order to develop GPLs applications, and that I can
EP>     CK> distribute the source code and the compiled version of the
EP>     CK> application under the GPL as long as the executables use the
EP>     CK> MSVCRT and MFC libraries as linked libraries (vs. static
EP>     CK> linking), and as long as I don't include the MSVCRT and MFC
EP>     CK> libraries with my software.

EP> So, I realize this wasn't your question, which Rick answered quite
EP> well, but I feel the need to note that you _can_ use an Open Source
EP> toolset for creating Windows programs.

EP> There's GnuWin32:

EP>         http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/

EP> and mingw:

EP>         http://www.mingw.org/

EP> ...for general-purpose compiling and such. Both are based on GCC, so
EP> you get all the fancy STL classes and other features you may want out
EP> of MFC.

EP> There's also a number of cross-platform GUI widget kits, such as V:

EP>         http://www.objectcentral.com/vgui/vgui.htm

EP> ...and wxWidgets (formerly wxWindows):

EP>         http://www.wxwidgets.org/

EP> For the more adventurous, I believe there are ports of GTK and GNUStep
EP> to Windows, too.

EP> Anyways, I'm probably just stating the obvious, but I figured somebody
EP> should.

EP> ~ESP




-- 
Mit freundlichen Grüssen
Carsten Kuckuk
mailto:ck at kuckuk.com


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