Wondering more about the details of the open source license mentions

[Richard Gaskin]

Hey Mark -

Good to see you here:

>> Richard Gaskin wrote (UR-List):
>> But it's an open source project now
> 
> Where are the details on the license of MetaCard posted?

Right in the IDE -- see Help->Licensing

> I'm confused about RunRev and this open source relationship.

Yeah, many folks are.  The unnecessary complexity of some open source 
licenses tend to confuse and frighten people. :)

With xTalks like Rev and SuperCard, where the engine is powerful enough 
to write its own authoring environment in, there's a distinction between 
the IDE and the underlying engine that drives it.  The IDE is just a 
collection of stacks, not much difference than anything else you can 
make with the engine.

As noted in the Licensing window within the product, the IDE is governed 
by the X11 license, while the engine remains proprietary under Rev's 
commercial license.

The principle of recognizing a given application (such as the MC IDE) as 
distinct from the APIs it uses (the Rev engine) is pretty much how all 
open source software exists on proprietary systems like OS X and 
Windows.  Such open source wares are dependent on proprietary underlying 
technologies, yet are readily recognized as open source without the 
confusion sometimes associated with MC.

I'm open to suggestions on how to communicate this simplicity more 
effectively, but the frequency of such questions throughout the open 
source world suggest the root of the problem lies with the unnecessary 
complexity of "forced freedom" licenses like the GPL.

As much as I admire Richard Stallman, after speaking with him on this 
I'm confident that it's not going to change anytime soon.  Even with 
more truly open license options like CopyLeft, X11, and public domain, 
because the GPL gets so much attention it will likely drive such 
conversations for a long time coming.

> Is the only open source part for the Linux platform?

The "only part" is the whole enchilada of the MC IDE, everything but the 
engine needed to run it.  It was done to foster community-driven 
maintenance and growth, not out of conformance with any licensing trends 
in the Linux world.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
  _______________________________________________________
  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com