Group Projects, e.g. Assimilator

[Mikey]

Is anybody posting any group projects to the 4D Wiki? I was thinking
of posting what I've done to fix Assimilator (which I've been sending
around to people who have asked for it) as The Borg. However, it has
some things that should be done to it, too, so I was thinking of
putting it out as a group project.

The problem with this is
a) I don't think 4D made the source public domain, even though it's
publicly available
b) If they didn't, then they would have to release it under some sort
of shared license, e.g. GPL/GLPL, Creative Commons to protect the
effort

[Pat Bensky]

Mikey,
If you use code that 4D provides for free and put it into a project of your own ... then what you do with that project is up to you, no?

Pat

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[Mikey]

The Assimilator was part of 4D Technote 04-38. I don't believe that
can be considered 'abandonware' yet, despite the fact that 4D has
notified me that nobody there is going to maintain it.

I personally just think it's good form to make sure a) we get their
blessing b) that we don't release something that's intended for 4D
Partners before it's supposed to be generally available and c) that we
don't fork something that they're going to continue to tweak
periodically, e.g. the barcode library, which has been revisited at
least once since it was first put out.

I've rewritten much of the Assimilator, and I could finish rewriting
it, call it my own and throw it out there, but I'm not prepared to
just flip off 4D without at least discussing it with them first.

We would need to set up a repository for the libraries that we create,
since we're not just releasing code but entire project/library files
because there are forms, tables, etc. in them.

There's also the matter of the plugins (4D ODBC Pro) that came with
the technote. That has been updated at least once since then. I
would think they would not want us to put that out with the
library/structure.

[Mikey]

Continuing with the previous thought, I've been in contact with a
couple of other people about other projects that they and I have been
involved in. This idea is going to get legs, maybe even this weekend,
but I want to do it right.

[Tom Swenson]

Depends on the license.

For instance, the license for the Cal4D component ( http://www.4d.com/knowledgebase?CaseID=45820
) is as follows:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PartnerWare

4D grants a limited license to partners to use the software described
in this technical note for use solely for the development of 4D
applications ("PartnerWare"). This right to use is limited to
incorporation of PartnerWare in a 4D based software application and
may not be used on a stand alone basis or incorporated with software
other than 4D software. This is a limited term license which shall
terminate when licensee is no longer a Partner for any reason.
Applications developed with PartnerWare can run indefinitely but no
new development is allowed with PartnerWare if the licensee is no
longer a Partner. 4D owns all rights to the PartnerWare including
derivative rights.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mikey]

...which brings me back to thinking that before anything else we need
4D to weigh in, at least as far as extending code from technotes.