compatibility and the OSD

[Ken Arromdee]

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004, Bob Scheifler wrote:
> > The larger point is that the AAL is probably 
> > right on the line as far as acceptability, but your license goes over 
> > that line.
> OK. If instead the license permitted distribution of incompatible
> binaries, but required them to display, when run, a statement
> that they are incompatible, would that be on the line, or over it?

I don't know if it violates the OSD, but one problem with this idea is that it
causes problems when reusing code.  If I see a nice sort algorithm in your
AAL program and want to reuse it in a word processor, then the word processor
has to print out a message saying that it is incompatible with your program
even though your program has nothing to do with word processing.

Also, suppose I wanted to reuse code from 10 different AAL-licensed programs.
I'd have to print 10 messages.

And of course I couldn't use the code in a non-interactive program.