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                    JOURNAL FOR SUNDAY 2ND SEPTEMBER, 2012
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SUBJECT: Still interest in WolfMUD out there
   DATE: Sun Sep  2 17:12:36 BST 2012

Well there is still interest for WolfMUD out there :) This week I had a nice
email from Dumpledore saying he was working on a small WolfMUD project. He
asked if I could give some help and advice on the Java version of WolfMUD.

During the following exchange of emails I mentioned the rewrite going on. He
and a few others - fellow devs and players? - seemed very enthusiastic. They
may not be able to help with the coding but are very willing to be testers.
I've also had a lot of feedback on new ideas and comments on the old WolfMUD.

In other news the rewrite is slowly progressing and I've written more of the
missing unit tests. I've also been working on this site getting it ready to go
live.

--
Diddymus

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SUBJECT: License considerations
   DATE: Sun Sep  2 21:32:352 BST 2012

While going through the new website material I noticed the grand plan[1] still
had the following paragraph:


   - The new WolfMUD will be released under an Open Source license from the
     very start. Probably the GPL2 or GPL3 but no firm decision yet.


This prompted me to take another look at licenses. Go itself - as at version
go1.0.2 - is under a modified BSD 3 clause license:


  https://golang.org/LICENSE


This is good news. However I remember there was a question a while ago on one
of the mailing lists about concerns with GPL programs that statically link
with Go. I think the concern was due to the patent clause in the license -
which has since been split into a separate file:


  https://golang.org/PATENTS


Looking at the GPL on the GNU website there is a list of GPL-Compatible Free
Software Licenses. According to the list the modified BSD license is
compatible:


  https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ModifiedBSD


If I want to distribute binaries along with source code for WolfMUD written in
GO can I point to the golang.org website to comply with the GPL's provision of
source code? This is because even with all my code being available and under
the GPL the Go libraries are still required to recreate executable binaries.

Are the Go libraries considered system files - as in Go system files maybe?

The only reason for providing binaries to users is for their convenience. I
tend to find - especially with the Java version - that users will download and
try the binary. If it meets their criteria of useful software they usually
come back for the source code later and then build their own binary. I could
just as easily provide only source code - but my already small audience would
get even smaller.

The GPL as a license for WolfMUD seems sound. Question now is GPL2 or GPL3?

--
Diddymus

  [1] Grand plan: ../../../grand-plan.html


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