Is it just me, again?

[J. Landman Gay]

On 4/12/13 2:21 AM, Cal Horner wrote:
> So, does this mean I can no longer use "Plug-ins" that I have paid good
> money for in LC unless I shell out $500 for the commercial product? Or keep
> using LC 5.5.4..

Correct, unless the plug-in developer also releases a GPL version of the 
plug-in. Many will.

> What does this do for the plug-in market? Seems like another example of
> shooting your own foot. How many creators will think about quitting LC
> because of a dumb restriction like this?

Actually, the decision was based partly on strong feedback from the 
developers themselves early on. Being one of those, I strongly agree 
with the decision. The open source license requires that anything you 
distribute must also be completely open. One of my main products is 
Zygodact, which provides a registration system for apps. If I open 
source it, the password algorithm and security measures I use will be 
fully exposed and rendered worthless. There is no way I can do that, so 
Zygodact will never be open source. Since open source stacks virtually 
never require secure registration, I'm not shooting myself in the foot. 
But if you plan to create a commercial version of your software but are 
developing it in the community version before you purchase the 
commercial product, Zygodact will not work. It won't open and you won't 
be able to test your code with it until you run it in the commercial 
version.

Other plug-in authors simply do not want their hard work exposed and 
will opt to not release as open source. They will sell to the commercial 
market only. If you find that one of your plug-ins no longer works, 
contact the developer and see if they can resolve the problem. If not, 
then the situation is no different from software that has been 
discontinued. I can no longer use many of the software products I 
purchased years ago.

>
> When I build something - anything I look for and use all the aids I can. Now
> LC is trying to restrict me.

They have responded reasonably to the developers who do not want to 
expose their work. The commercial version of LiveCode will open locked 
stacks, but the source code is not available for review. The only way to 
actually see the security module code is to purchase a very expensive 
license that is far beyond the means of most people, and even then there 
are strong contracts involved.


-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com