license question

[Alexandros Tzannes]

Hi,
my name is Alex Tzannes, I'm a grad student at Univeristy of Maryland working on the XMTC compiler. I have written a component of the compiler using sablecc 3.2 and we are releasing the compiler soon, so I am investigating the license issues. According to my understanding, since sablecc is under LGPL 2.1, and according to section 5, using the sablecc.jar file puts me in the "work the uses the Library" category, which means that I can license my code however I want. Is this correct ? (FYI: I'm considering BSD or GPL, perhaps leaning towards GPL)

Thank you,
Alex

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[Etienne M. Gagnon]

Hi Alex,


> [...] I have written a component of the compiler using sablecc 3.2 and
> we are releasing the compiler soon, so I am investigating the license
> issues. According to my understanding, since sablecc is under LGPL
> 2.1, and according to section 5, using the sablecc.jar file puts me in
> the "work the uses the Library" category, which means that I can
> license my code however I want. Is this correct ?
You must comply with the requirements of the LGPL 2.1. Please pay
special attention to Section 6 of this license; it has many important
requirements. So, it would be false to say that you can license your
code under any license you want; your license must not conflict with
your obligations under the LGPL 2.1. Yet, it is usually quite easy to do
so. Also, if you want to license your work under the GPL, the LGPL has
special provisions for that. See Section 3.


Note that you can chose to apply the terms of the LGPL 3 to SableCC,
instead of 2.1, as permission is given to you to use "version 2.1, or
any later version" in the LICENSE file.

Hoping this clarifies things a little, for you.

One last thing: This only applies to SableCC's source code. The license
of generated code is the license of the grammar that was used to
generate the code. So, if you write a grammar from scratch, then you can
license the generated code under any terms you want. If you use (or
modify) someone else's grammar, you must comply with its license.

Etienne

--
Etienne M. Gagnon, Ph.D.
SableCC:                                            http://sablecc.org
SableVM:                                            http://sablevm.org




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